Game Information
Opponent	Sacred Heart Pioneers
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Saturday, November 18, 2023
Time	11:00 a.m.
Location	Catonsville, Md. | Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena
Tickets	Free Admission
Directions	Click Here
Watch	No Live Stream Available
Online Media	Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball team plays a pair of games in a multi-team event at UMBC this weekend, starting with an 11 o'clock tipoff Saturday morning against Sacred Heart University.
• Loyola then takes on UMBC on Sunday.
• Tavaras Hardy is in his sixth season as the Greyhounds' head coach and returns 12 players from a season ago.
• The Greyhounds finished the 2023-24 season by winning five of its last six games, averaging 82 points per game in those victories.
• Deon Perry was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team at the end of the season after raising his scoring average throughout conference play to average 13.6 points in 18 Patriot League games. In 13 regular-season non-conference outings, he averaged 7.8 per game.
• Golden Dike and Alonso Faure similarly boosted their rebounding numbers during the conference season. Faure has averaged 6.9 against Patriot League teams, compared to 4.8 in non-league games. Dike is up to 6.6 over 6.0 earlier in the year.
• Four newcomers dot the Greyhounds' roster with a transfer, D'Angelo Stines, and three freshmen, Troy Cicero Jr., Matt Gray and Jordan Stiemke.

Watch The Action

• No live stream will be available for the Loyola versus Sacred Heart game.

Series History Versus Sacred Heart

• Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between Loyola and Sacred Heart and the first in more than 43 years.
• The Greyhounds only date with the Pioneers came on December 30, 1979, in the title game of a tournament played at Sacred Heart. The Pioneers won the game, 60-57.

Last Time Out

• A Deon Perry turnaround jumper with 2:52 left in regulation pulled Loyola within a point, 56-55, but Binghamton scored the next four points, and the Bearcats held on for a 63-57 victory in Reitz Arena.
• Perry, who finished with 17 points, cut through traffic and curled into space just outside the left block to knock down a jumper, but Tariq Baloguin scored over the Greyhounds defense 19 seconds later for Binghamton.
• A three by Loyola went off line, and Symir Torrence  grabbed a rebound off a missed Binghamton three and laid in a putback at 1:36, making the margin 60-55.
• Golden Dike had a dunk off a Perry assist with 44 seconds left, and it was a three-point Bearcats lead, but the Greyhounds were whistled for a blocking foul when their defender had his heels inside the restricted area in the paint. Tymu Chenery missed the first free throw, but he converted the second, and Binghamton led by four.
• Perry's 17 points were a game high, and Milos Ilic added 12 points for Loyola, but no other Greyhounds player scored more than six.
• Balogun had 16 points for Binghamton, while Chenery added 14 and Torrence scored 12.

Golden Efficiency

• Golden Dike led the Greyhounds in scoring for just the third time in his career at Loyola when he scored 16 points at Florida in the season opener, doing so with efficient fashion.
• Dike made all five shots he took from the field and six of his eight free throws. He then scored 14 points on 7 of 12 shooting in the win at Brown and then 2 of 2 versus Binghamton. Through Loyola's first three games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .737.
• He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark that moved up to 56.5 after the Binghamton game. Against the Bears, Dike moved into 12th all-time at the school in rebounds and now has 681 in his career..
• Dike is in his fifth year at Loyola and pursuing his M.B.A. in the university's graduate studies program.
• Last season, Dike had fewer than nine rebounds only once in the month of February, averaging 9.4 in that period to raise his season average to 6.7 per game, good for fourth in the Patriot League.

Playing Big

• Deon Perry, who was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team following the regular season, and was the Greyhounds' leading scorer over their last 16 games, averaging 16.2 points in a stretch that opened January 11 with a then-career-high 22 at Bucknell.
• The 5-foot-8 guard shot 44.0 percent (51 of 116) from 3-point range during the1615 games, raising his per-game scoring average from 6.9 after the January 8 game at Holy Cross to its final mark of 11.4.
• Perry was more aggressive in getting into the paint during the stretch of 16 games and has gone to the free-throw line 53 times, making 49. Prior to the first Bucknell game, he had taken only 16 free throws this year.
• In his last 10 games of 2023-24, Perry averaged 19.3 points per game and was 39 of 82 from 3-point range (47.6 percent).
• Defensively, Perry had 19 steals in Loyola's last 11 games to raise his season total to 51, a number that was sixth in the Patriot League. 
• Perry had the seventh game with 20 or more points in his career at Brown early in 2023-24 and then came back with 17 against Binghamton. He is leading Loyola with a 13.7 points per game average to boost his career mark to 11.6 points.

Stines' Second Half Success

• D'Angelo Stines became the first incoming transfer to play for Loyola since Tavaras Hardy has been the head coach (dating to 2018-19). After spending two years at Old Dominion, the Baltimore-area native joined the Loyola program this offseason.
• Stines played in 55 games over two seasons for the Monarchs, making six starts and averaging 12.1 minutes per game. He averaged 2.5 points per game in those two seasons.
• The product of Baltimore Catholic League power Mount St. Joseph's High School made his Loyola regular-season debut at Florida and finished with 13 points, hitting 3 of 7 from 3-point range and 5 of 12 overall. He also had three assists against the Gators in 25 minutes. He then had 10 points in the win at Brown.
• Stines has scored 24 of his 29 points this season in the second half of the three games.

Starting & Scoring

• Tyson Commander made the first start of his collegiate career at Florida and finished with 16 points, one off his season-high that he scored twice last year as a freshman. The second-year guard made 7 of 13 shots and also had four rebounds and three assists against the Gators.
• Commander was a late commit to the Greyhounds in Summer 2022 who did not participate in summer practices. Not coincidentally, his playing time grew as the season wore on, and he averaged 5.3 points and 16.5 minutes per game in the year's final six contests of 2022-23.
• He missed the Brown game and was limited in the Binghamton contest due to injury.

The Spanish Affair

• Loyola took an eight-day, three-game trip to Spain during August that enabled the Greyhounds to play outside competition while spending time immersed in the culture of a foreign country.
• The Greyhounds visited the cities of Bilbao, Madrid and Alicante while also taking trips to San Sebastian and the town of Loyola, birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order which founded the university.
• On the court, the Greyhounds went 2-1 with a win over a junior team from Bilbao and a professional select group from Madria. Valencia's juniors edged the Greyhounds by three in their final game. Note: the junior teams were comprised of college-age players in Spain.
• Tyson Commander led the Greyhounds with a 16.0 points per game average in Spain, while D'Angelo Stines put up 14.7 and Deon Perry averaged 12.0. Golden Dike and Alonso Faure both nearly averaged double-doubles with each averaging 9.3 points per game; the former posted 12.7 rebounds per game and the latter 10.3.

New Faces On The Sideline

• Three new voices have joined the men's basketball coaching staff and will be on the bench with Tavaras Hardy who is in his sixth season as Greyhounds' head coach.
• JerShon Cobb is back for his second year as an assistant coach with Loyola, and he is joined by two new-to-the-Greyhounds assistant coaches and a new director of operations.
• Mike Brennan is not a strange to Patriot League sidelines, but the 1994 graduate of Princeton is in his first season with Loyola. Brennan spent the last 10 seasons as head coach at American where he guided the Eagles to the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Coincidentally, Brennan was an assistant coach at Georgetown before taking the head coaching job at American in 2013-14, and Hardy replaced him on John Thompson III's staff with the Hoyas at that time.
• Matt Miller spent the last five seasons with as an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary's. He has nearly 20 years of experience as a collegiate and high school coach in the DMV area including as the head coach of St. Maria Goretti in the Baltimore Catholic League. 
• Ricky Hernandez joined the staff as director of operations following five years on the bench as an assistant coach at nearby Johns Hopkins. He was a part of the 2023 Centennial Conference Coaching Staff of the Year as the Blue Jays reached the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015 and tied a school record with 25 wins.

Looking Back

• Loyola finished the 2022-23 season with a 13-20 overall record and 7-11 mark in Patriot League competition, but the Greyhounds finish to the year was strong.
• Loyola won five of its six last regular-season games and all four of its final home outings. The Greyhounds were 5-4 in the second half of Patriot League play.
• Kenneth Jones finished the season leading the team with 11.5 points per game and 378 total points, three more than Deon Perry's 375 (11.4). Jaylin Andrews joined Jones and Perry in scoring more than 11 points per game, averaging 11.3 per game, while Alonso Faure and Golden Dike averaged 8.9 and 7.3 points, respectively.
• Dike led the team with 6.7 rebounds per game, and Faure grabbed 6.1.

Second Half Story

• Loyola finished the first half of 2022-23 Patriot League play with a 2-7 record, but it went 5-4 during the second half.
• Improved offense was the key to the improved second half as the Greyhounds shot 47.3 percent from the field, 40.4 from 3-point range and 70.4 from the free-throw line. During the first half of the conference schedule, Loyola shot 43.7 overall, 31.3 from 3-point range and 57.1 from the line. This led to an increase in scoring from 59.7 points per game to 74.4
• Assists were up, as well, going from 10.9 to 15.1, while turnovers decreased from 14.6 to 10.8. 
• Individually, Kenneth Jones was the only Loyola player averaging more than nine points per game in the first nine conference games, but in the second half, all five Greyhounds starters – Deon Perry (18.7), Jaylin Andrews (13.9), Jones (11.4), Alonso Faure (11.3), and Golden Dike (8.4) – were at eight points or more. 
• Perry made the biggest increase, going from 8.4 points in the first nine games to 18.7 in the last nine. Faure raised his scoring average from 6.7 to 11.3, while Andrews jumped from 8.1 to 13.9.

In Terms Of Freshmen

• Perry's 28 points on February 11, 2023, at Lehigh are a to-date career-high, and they were the most by a Loyola freshman since Lucious Jordan scored 28 in February 2002, a stretch of 21 years.
• Perry had six games with 20 or more points last season, the most by a Loyola freshman since Kevin Green had seven of the same ilk in 1988-89. Green went on to finish his career ranked second all-time in points at Loyola, and he is now fifth with 2,154.
• Amongst a strong crop of Patriot League freshmen this season, Perry's 13.6 points during conference play ranked third behind Holy Cross's Will Batchelder (14.6) and Army West Point's Ethan Roberts (14.3). Overall, Perry's scoring average was 11th among all players.

Swiping Steals

• The Greyhounds led the Patriot League in steals per game last season, averaging 7.5 per game with 247 total. Loyola's steals per game ranked 69th in the nation.
• Deon Perry was sixth in the conference with 1.55 steals per game.

Faure Rounding Into Form

• Alonso Faure had the best season of his collegiate career as a junior, averaging 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds in 23 minutes of action per game. 
• Faure had 11 games with 10 or more points and logged his first three collegiate double-doubles during the year.
• The native of Alicante, Spain, shot a team-best 58.1 percent from the field last year, making 115 of 198 shots to rank fifth in the conference in field-goal percentage; his 2-point field goal percentage was 63.6 percent (105 of 165). 
• Entering 2022-2023, 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.

At The Next Level

• Former Loyola standout Santi Aldama (SAHN-tee ALL-dah-muh) has made a considerable impact in his second NBA season during 2022-23. 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 as a rookie, Aldama stepped into Memphis' starting lineup early last year at the four spot and is averaged 9.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Grizzlies in 77 games played. Aldama missed the first six games of the 2023-24 regular season before making his debut on November 5. In five games this season, Aldama is averaging 11.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He led the Grizzlies with 24 points on November 14 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Up Next

• After the UMBC game, Loyola will take a trip to the midwest for a Thanksgiving Weekend game at the University of Missouri. Loyola will face the Tigers on Saturday, November 25.