Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball wraps up a four game road swing on Wednesday, November 30, when it heads to Vestal, New York, for a 6 p.m. game against Binghamton University.
- The game at Dr. Bai Lee Court will be streamed live on ESPN+.
- Loyola is in the midst of a stretch of six out of seven games on the road.
- The Greyhounds return 13 players from a year ago, including three fifth-year players who are pursuing their graduate degrees at Loyola: Jaylin Andrews, Kenneth Jones and Markese Redding.
- Andrews and Jones are the team's top two returning scorers after posting 13.9 and 8.7 points per game, respectively, last season.
- Jones led the Patriot League in assists (139) and assists per game (4.6), while Andrews was ninth in the conference in points per game. The duo ranked third and fourth in the Patriot League in steals per game, averaging 1.6 and 1.5.
- Jones finished the year ranked No. 58 in NCAA Division I in assists per game, while the Greyhounds were 51st as a team, averaging 15.0.
- Tavaras Hardy is in his fifth season on the Loyola sidelines after he was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28, 2018.
Watch The Action
- Wednesday's game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus Binghamton
- Wednesday's game will be the seventh meeting between Loyola and Binghamton since November 2012 when the series began. This version is the first of a home-and-home series that will bring the Bearcats to Baltimore next season.
- Loyola has one five of the six previous meetings with the Bearcats picking up their win in 2017 on the Greyhounds' home floor.
- The last meeting between the programs came on December 1, 2019, with Loyola taking a 77-65 decision on its home floor.
Last Time Out
- Kenneth Jones' floater with six seconds left gave Loyola a one-point lead on Saturday, and David Brown III blocked a 3-point attempt by Louisiana Monroe at the buzzer to secure a 65-64 win in the teams' finale of the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Florida.
- Loyola led by as many as 14 in the second half, but the Warhawks came back to lead, 62-60 on a Thomas Howell jumper with 1:17 on the clock. Brown responded with a three from the deep, left corner in front with a minute to play. Howell scored again for Louisiana Monroe with just over 30 seconds to play, making it a 64-63 Warhawks lead.
- Jones drove the paint and kicked a pass off to a teammate, but the layup attempt was too strong, and Louisiana Monroe grabbed a rebound with 23 seconds left. Jamari Blackmon was fouled after grabbing the board, but he missed the front-end of one-and-one.
- Brown pulled down the board for the Greyhounds, and Loyola brought it into the front-court. After running offense for 10 seconds, Jones used an Alonso Faure high ball-screen to get a step on his defender. He ran into traffic in the paint, but he released a floater on the run that found the net to put Loyola up by one.
- The Warhawks inbounded the ball to Blackmon, but his jumper at the buzzer was blocked by Brown, securing the win.
- Brown, who was named to the Emerald Coast Classic All-Tournament Team, finished the game with nine points, four rebounds and three blocked shots. His effort came a day after he had career-highs of 22 points and seven rebounds Friday against Southern University.
- Chris Kuzemka finished Saturday's game with a career-high 12 points to lead Loyola. He made 4 of 7 attempts from 3-point range, exceeding his career total for 3-pointers made in the game.
- Jones' last-second bucket gave him 11 points to go with four assists. Isaiah Alexander scored 10 points, and Alonso Faure had nine. Golden Dike scored six and led Loyola with five rebounds; Deon Perry also tallied six and paired that with five assists.
Big Game For Brown
- David Brown III had the best game of his collegiate career on November 25 against Southern, logging career-highs of 22 points and seven rebounds in 34 minutes. He made 8 of 10 shots, 3 of 4 from 3-point range in the game.
- Brown not only eclipsed his previous highs of eight points (Army West Point, January 2022) and four rebounds (three times), he scored more than he did in his first five games of the year (16 points). In 33 career games before Friday, Brown had scored 75 points (2.3 points per game).
- Brown came back with nine points, four rebounds and three blocked shots – including one on a potential game-winner at the buzzer – the following day against Louisiana Monroe. He earned All-Tournament Team honors at the Emerald Coast Classic following the games.
Faure Rounding Into Form
- Alonso Faure did not play in the Greyhounds' preseason scrimmage or exhibition due to an injury, and he played just nine minutes in the opener against DePaul before a hand injury forced him out for the second half and the following game at Penn State.
- He has come back strong, however, averaging 12 points in the Greyhounds' last five games.
- The native of Alicante, Spain, scored eight in 19 minutes versus Brown and then had a career-best 18 points – making 8 of 11 shots – and three steals in 20 minutes versus Washington College.
- He then saw 26 minutes of action against Clemson and went 6 of 9 from the field to score a game-high 15 points while leading Loyola with six rebounds. In the first game of the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida, Faure went 5 of 7 from the field and scored 10 to go with seven rebounds.
- Faure is shooting a team-best 59.5 percent from the field in his first five games this year, making 25 of 42 shots. His fieldgoal percentage this season ranks fifth in the Patriot League. Entering this year, he was shooting 50.7 percent in his career after putting up nearly identical numbers of 34 of 67 (.5074) in 2020-2021 and 35 of 69 (.5072) last year.
First-Year Starters
- Deon Perry and Isaiah Alexander have both come into the lineup this season and seen considerable minutes with Perry starting all six games and Alexander opening each of the last three.
- Perry is fourth on the team with a 7.4 points per game average while checking in second with 2.6 assists. Alexander, meanwhile, has averaged 7.0 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Putting Up Numbers
- Kenneth Jones opened his fifth season with the Greyhounds in impressive fashion, tying his collegiate high with 20 points in the opener at DePaul. He made 4 of 7 from 3-point range and 8 of 13 from the field.
- The total matched his previous high of 20 points set on February 23, 2022, at the U.S. Naval Academy where he made 7 of 10 shots and 4 of 5 from behind the arc.
- Jaylin Andrews then had the second game with 20 or more points this year for Loyola, tallying 23 in the second contest at Penn State. He went 9 of 16 from the field and logged his 10th career game with 20 or more points.
- Andrews and Jones tied for team- and game-high honors in Loyola's third game, scoring 18 points each.
Big On The Boards
- Golden Dike finished the DePaul leading all players with 11 rebounds, six coming on the offensive glass. The game was the seventh of his career with 10 or more rebounds, and he finished a point shy of his fifth career double-double.
- Dike is now in 25th place all-time at the school with 481 in his career.
Taking Advantage Of Time
- Chris Kuzemka missed two-thirds of his freshman season with an ankle injury suffered during the preseason, but he came back to average 7.8 minutes in 11 outings late in the year.
- He opened the season with seven points and four rebounds at DePaul and has continued to contribute significantly since. Kuzemka followed that with six points and four boards at Penn State. Against Washington College, he had four assists and three steals.
- In the finale of the Emerald Coast Classic, Kuzemka made 4 of 7 from 3-point range and scored 12 points to go with three assists in 27 minutes during the win.
- In seven games this year, Kuzemka has averaged 5.3 points per game and has a 3.7:1 assist:turnover ratio.
Chart Climbers
- Jaylin Andrews and Kenneth Jones both took advantage of their fifth years of eligibility, and they are continuing to climb the Loyola career-record charts.
- Andrews is now 34th in points (1,096), tied for 14th in 3-pointers made (114) and ninth in steals (144).
- Jones is eighth in 3-pointers made (153), 12th in assists (317) and 16th in steals (117).
Business Suits Required
- Three Greyhounds – Jaylin Andrews, Kenneth Jones and Markese Redding – returned to the Loyola roster this season as graduate students. All three are completing classes in the fall and spring semesters to earn their M.B.A. degrees.
Scorers Under Hardy
- Loyola has had the total points scored leader in the Patriot League fourth year in a row since Head Coach Tavaras Hardy came to the Evergreen campus for the 2018-19 season.
- Andrew Kostecka led the conference in points scored during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, as did Santi Aldama during 2019-20.
- Last year, Cam Spencer leads all Patriot League players with 566 points.
Guardian of the Game
- Tavaras Hardy was named the recipient of the 2022 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Guardian of the Game Award for Inclusion, honoring Hardy and the Greyhounds' commitment to building a program that embodies all cultures and backgrounds.
- Hardy formed a coaching staff that includes the only female assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level, a female director of operations and previously a former European coach.
- The Greyhounds have also recruited student-athletes from diverse backgrounds, including from four other countries.
Dishing
- Kenneth Jones led the Patriot League with 4.6 assists per game, and last season, he had eight games with seven or more assists, the first eight of his career. Loyola was third in the conference with 15.0 assists per game. Its 449 assists last season ranked sixth most in school history.
- As a team, the Greyhounds recorded 20 or more assists five times last season (24 versus Elizabethtown, 22 against Chicago State, 21 at St. Bonaventure, 20 at Army West Point and 21 versus Holy Cross). Loyola was 51st nationally in assists per game.
- Per KenPom.com, the Greyhounds dished out assists on 59.5 percent of their made baskets, the 24th-highest percentage in NCAA Division I last year.
- In Tavaras Hardy's four-plus years as Loyola's head coach, the Greyhounds have 17 games with 20 or more assists. In the prior eight years, they had just three such games.
Stepping Into A Leading Role
- Jaylin Andrews was the Greyhounds' top returning scorer last year, after averaging 11.6 points per game as a junior in the shortened 2020-2021 season, and he showed his ability to step into a leading role during Loyola's 2021-2022 opener at North Carolina. Andrews started his senior year with a team-high 17 points, knocking down 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range.
- Andrews then blew up for a career-high 30 points on November 12 against South Carolina State, going 11 of 15 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The 30 points exceeded his previous career-best of 25 points from January 2020 against American.
- He finished the 2021-22 season ranked ninth in the Patriot League in points per game at 13.7, while he also averaged 1.4 steals and 4.1 rebounds per game.
- Andrews became the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career when on February 16, 2022, at Lafayette, his 104th career game.
- Andrews continued his climb as a consistent scorer and rebounder for the Greyhounds during the 2020-2021 season. He went for 13 points twice during the first two games of the year before breaking out for 22 on January 24 against American.
- He averaged 14.3 points during that year's Patriot League Championships, scoring 17 in the quarterfinal at Navy and 20 in the title game at Colgate. Overall, Andrews wrapped up his junior campaign by averaging 11.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the 17 contests.
- Through 113 career games, of which he has started 90, Andrews is averaging 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
On The Right Track
- Kenneth Jones was a consistent member of the Greyhounds' rotation throughout the first three years of his career, averaging 20.8 minutes over 76 games heading into his senior season. In 2021-22, however, Jones stepped into the role of a full-time starter and saw his minutes, and production, soar.
- He averaged 33.3 minutes per game, while producing 8.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per contest, all career-highs. He had a 2.21:1 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks third in the Patriot League and is a career-high, as well. His 4.6 assists were 58th in NCAA Division I.
- His 139 assists were 10th in school single-season history.
- Jones averaged 4.6 assists in 18 Patriot League regular-season games last year, and his total of 83 dimes were 14 more than any other player in conference play.
- Over his career, Jones has played in 113 games, starting 47, and averages 7.0 points and 2.8 assists per game.
Glass Ceiling Shattered
- Corin 'Tiny' Adams is in her third year on the Loyola bench as an assistant coach after joining the Greyhounds staff in October 2020.
- The all-time leading scorer in Morgan State women's basketball history is the sixth woman to serve as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I history, and she is currently the only woman in the position.
At The Next Level
- Former Loyola standout Santi Aldama has made a considerable impact in his second NBA season. Aldama, who played for the Greyhounds from 2018-2020, earning 2019 Patriot League All-Rookie honors and then 2020 All-Patriot League First Team recognition, was a first-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2021 NBA Draft.
- After seeing action in 32 games a rookie, Aldama stepped into Memphis' starting lineup early this year at the four spot and is averaging 9.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.0 blocked shots per game for the Grizzlies through 19 games.
Up Next
- The Greyhounds return to Reitz Arena for a Saturday, December 3, contest against Coppin State University.
