Game Information
Opponent	George Mason Patriots
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Saturday, December 16, 2023
Time	6:00 p.m.
Location	Fairfax, Va. | Eagle Bank Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Watch	ESPN+
Online Media	Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball team takes a break from final exams on Saturday, December 16, for a 6 p.m. game in Fairfax, Virginia, at Eagle Bank Arena against George Mason University.
• The Greyhounds and Patriots will meet for the first time since the 2019-2020 season.
• The Greyhounds finished the 2023-24 season by winning five of their 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 George Mason

• Loyola and George Mason have met on 14 previous occasions with the Patriots winning eight and Loyola six.
• In the last meeting on November 19, 2019, at Eagle Bank Arena, George Mason took a 37-30 lead just over four minutes into the second half, but the Greyhounds rallied to regain the advantage and go up 44-40 on a traditional 3-point play by KaVaughn Scott at 11:27.
• George Mason regained the lead and was ahead 59-52 with 2:18 to play, but a Brent Holcombe layup made it a one-point game with 1:01 on the clock. The Patriots converted four free throws in the final minute, however, to secure a 65-61 win.
• Loyola's last win in the series came on March 15, 2017, in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) when it defeated the Patriots, 73-58, in Fairfax.

Last Time Out

• Mount St. Mary's went on a 2-6 run over the second part of the first half to open up a 20-point lead before halftime, and the Mountaineers went on to a 77-64 victory over Loyola on Saturday night.
• Alonso Faure had a dunk off a Milos Ilic assist at 11:25, and the Mountaineers' lead was four, 14-10, but they then scored 22 of the next 28 points to go up 36-16 with 1:45 left in the half. 
• Mount St. Mary's had a 38-20 halftime lead that Loyola quickly cut to 38-26 on a Deon Perry layup to cap a 6-0 Greyhounds run to start the period.
• Perry later had a basket in the paint with 16:42 to go, cutting the lead to 41-30, but Mount St. Mary's scored the next seven points.
• Loyola would get its deficit back to 11 with 4:23 remaining on a Perry 3-pointer, but it could not draw closer.
• D'Angelo Stines led Loyola with 12 points, while Faure and Perry each had nine. Ilic and Golden Dike both had a team-high seven rebounds.

Spread Out Scoring

• Entering Saturday's game at George Mason, Loyola has eight players who are averaging six or more points per game this season with Deon Perry's 12.0 leading the way.
• D'Angelo Stines (9.9) and Golden Dike (8.5) are next on the list for Loyola, while Alonso Faure (7.9) and Milos Ilic (7.3) are also above seven.
• The Greyhounds are the only team in the Patriot League with as many players at the 6.0 points per game mark so far this season.
• All eight of the players – including Chris Kuzemka (6.7) and David Brown III (6.1) – have scored 10 or more points at least once this year, and five of them have led, or tied for the team lead, in scoring in a game.

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 10 games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .618 (34 of 55).
• He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 56.5 after the Mount St. Mary's 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 he now has 734 total; Roderick Platt is 8th in school history with 745 total rebounds.
• Dike is tied for second in the Patriot League in rebounds per game at 7.4.

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. 
• He had his first collegiate double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at La Salle, leading the team in rebounds with his first double-digit performance on the boards.
• Ilic is third on the team in field-goal percentage, making 28 of 60 shots for a 46.7 percent mark while averaging 7.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

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 He then led the Greyhounds with 16 points against Delaware State, and he had a team-best 14 at La Salle. He is now averaging 7.9 points per game, and his field-goal percentage is 50.8 percent.
• Over the last games – dating back to the Missouri contest – Faure leads the team with 11.4 points per outing.
• Last season, Faure scored just nine points in 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). He has a career field-goal percentage of 54.5 percent that ranks fourth in school history.

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 15 of 33 from 3-point range to average 42.9 percent from behind the arc. That is good for third in the conference, although he is second among players who have attempted more than 20 3-pointers.
• Brown has averaged 6.1 points through eight 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 12.0 points per game average to boost his career mark to 11.5 points. He is eighth in the Patriot League in points per game, and he is fourth in assists (4.0).

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 60 of his 99 points this season in the second half of the 10 games. Overall, he's averaging 9.9 points in 26.3 minutes per game this season. In particular, Stines' 3-point percentage goes way up in the second half from 25.9 percent before the break to 42.9 percent after.

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 Madrid. 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.

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 14 games this season, Aldama is averaging 13.4 points and 6.1 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 returns to Reitz Arena on Friday, December 22, for a 12 noon game against St. Mary's College of Maryland. The Greyhounds will then break for Christmas before returning to action on Friday, December 29, at St. Joseph's University.