Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball returns to Reitz Arena after a four-game road trip to host Delaware State University on Saturday, December 2, at 5 p.m.
- The game will stream live on ESPN+.
- Saturday's game is just the second regular-season home game of the year for Loyola after it has started with six of seven on the road.
- 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
- Saturday's game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus Delaware State
- Loyola and Delaware State begin a two-year series on December 2 that will culminate in 2024 with a game on the Hornets' home court in Dover, Delaware.
- This is this the second two-game set the teams have played after they met in 2018 and 2019
- The Greyhounds won both of those meetings, taking the 2018 matchup, 91-62, in Baltimore, before posting an 84-76 victory in Delaware on December 4, 2019.
Last Time Out
- Deon Perry scored nine points, and Chris Kuzemka had a 3-pointer, during a 12-0 Loyola run that gave the visiting Greyhounds a 52-45 lead over Columbia with 9:43 left in regulation, but the Lions responded with a 24-8 run to close the game for a 69-57 non-conference victory.
- Kuzemka got Loyola within two by hitting a three after a Perry steal and assist, narrowing the Columbia lead to 45-43 at 10:49, and Perry came up with another steal that led to Kuzemka assisting him for a three 22 seconds later.
- Perry's three gave Loyola its first lead since the 16:53 mark in the first half, and he came up with another steal nine seconds later than led to a transition layup on which he was fouled. He converted the traditional 3-point play with a free throw, and Loyola was up three, 48-45, at 10:14.
- Columbia (6-2 overall) misfired on a 3-point attempt on its ensuing possession, and Perry grabbed the rebound. On the offensive end, Kuzemka fed Perry for another three, and Loyola's lead was at its largeset point, 52-45, with 9:43 on the clock.
- Neither Loyola, nor Columbia scored for over 80 seconds before Geronimo Rubio de la Rosa was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws. Avery Brown then made two free throws at 7:19, and Loyola's lead was down to a pair.
- Jake Tavroff had his first shot attempt in a series blocked by Alonso Faure, but the ball settled back in Tavroff's hands, and he scored at 6:35, snapping a five-minute stretch without a Columbia field goal. That basket tied the score at 52-52 with 6:35 on the clock.
- It took nearly two minutes for either team to score again, and de la Rosa put the Lions in front, 54-52, with two free throws. Perry connected for three again, this time with 4:31 on the clock, and Loyola went back in front, 55-54, but Columbia scored the next 15 points and Loyola did not add to its total until 21 seconds were left in the game.
- Perry scored a team-high 17 points, making 6 of 10 shots and 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Kuzemka led the scoring in the first half, ending the period with 12 points en route to scoring a season-best 15. D'Angelo Stines and Golden Dike each added eight point, and Dike had a game-best 12 rebounds.
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 he went 6 of 7 for 15 points at UMBC.
- Through Loyola's first seven games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .659 (27 of 41).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark that moved up to 56.6 after the Columbia game.
- His three games with 14 or more points, through only seven contests, are already more than he's had in any one of his previous seasons. He had two such games as a freshman, sophomore and senior, as well as a one during his junior season.
- 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.
Top 10 On The Boards
- With his ninth and final rebound against Sacred Heart, Golden Dike moved into a tie for 10th all-time at Loyola with 690 rebounds, matching Bernard Allen's total from 2001-05.
- Against Missouri, he became the 10th player in school history to grab 700 or more rebounds in a career. With 12 rebounds at Columbia, he moved into ninth all-time in the category and has 715 total; Roderick Platt is 8th in school history with 745 total rebounds.
Consistent In His Return
- Milos Ilic missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season while rehabbing a knee injury suffered on January 25, 2022, at Lafayette. His return this season has seen him start all four games, averaging 26.7 minutes, 9.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
- After opening with five points at Florida, Ilic has scored nine points at Brown and then 12 against both Binghamton and Sacred Heart. He had four rebounds in each of the first four games before grabbing nine against the Pioneers. Ilic was limited because of fouls at UMBC and finished with four points.
- Ilic is second on the team in field-goal percentage, making 19 of 40 shots for a 47.5 percent mark that is fifth in the Patriot League among qualified players.
Faure Breaks Out
- Alonso Faure entered the November 25 game at Missouri averaging just 4.4 points per game while shooting 37 percent from the field, but the senior post player went 6 of 7 from the field against the Tigers, was the same from the free-throw line, and he had a game-high 18 points.
- The 18 points matched his career-high output After being limited at Columbia due to illness, he is averaging 5.7 points per game, and his field-goal percentage is 47.1 percent.
- Last season, Faure scored just nine points in th his first two games of the year – DePaul and Brown – but he went for 18 in a November 17 game against Washington College. That sparked a five-game stretch in which he scored 60 points and averaged 12 per game.
- Later in the year, he averaged 13.8 points (69 total) in five games between February 11 at Lehigh and the regular-season finale on February 25 versus American.
- 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).
DBIII For Three
- David Brown III has lived up to the three in his name this season as the Greyhounds leading 3-point shooter. He has made 12 of 26 from 3-point range to average 46.2 percent from behind the arc. That is good for fourth in the conference, although he is second among players who have attempted more than 12 3-pointers.
- Brown has averaged 6.6 points through six games this season with a season-high 12 points coming at Brown and 11 at Missouri.
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 the 16 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 13.4 points per game average to boost his career mark to 11.7 points. He also tops the team with nine steals, good for 1.7 per game in 2023-24.
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 43 of his 68 points this season in the second half of the six games. Overall, he's averaging 9.7 points in 26.6 minutes per game this season.
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.
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.
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 11 games this season, Aldama is averaging 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. He led the Grizzlies with 24 points on November 14 against the Los Angeles Lakers, and he had a double-double with a career-high 28 points to go with 12 rebounds on November 19 against Boston.
Up Next
- Loyola plays its first of two games in Philadelphia this season on Wednesday, December 6, when it heads to La Salle University for a 6:30 game.
