Quick Hits About The Hounds
- The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball team plays its final game before Christmas on Friday, December 22, when it hosts St. Mary's College of Maryland in a 12 noon tipoff.
- Friday's game will be the Greyhounds' final regular-season non-conference home game of 2023-2024 and their penultimate non-conference game of the year.
- 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
- Friday's game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus St Mary's
- Loyola will face St. Mary's College of Maryland for the 10th time in series history on Friday afternoon and the first time since the final regular-season game of the 1995-96 regular-season.
- The Greyhounds have won all nine previous meetings against the Seahawks, most recently taking a 98-52 decision on February 28, 1996 in Reitz Arena.
- Loyola and St. Mary's first met in January 1976 as the Greyhounds came away with a 102-79 victory
Last Time Out
- Alonso Faure's traditional 3-point play with 8:44 left in regulation capped a 10-0 Loyola run and gave the Greyhounds a 44-42 lead, but George Mason scored the next six points to regain the lead and eventually pull away for a 62-54 non-conference victory on Saturday evening.
- The Patriots led 32-24 at halftime, but two Deon Perry 3-pointers in the opening minute of the second half made it a three-point game.
- Another three by Perry at 14:08 closed the gap to a pair, 36-34, but George Mason scored the next six points and led 42-34 on a Keyshawn Hall transition basket.
- The Patriots' bench, however, was assessed a technical foul after that basket, and Perry made both free throws at 12:14 to start the 10-0 run. On the possession that followed the foul shots, D'Angelo Stines knocked down a three off a Tyson Commander assist, and Loyola was back within three, 42-39, at 11:49.
- Just over two minutes later, Commander came up with a steal near the George Mason free-throw line, and he got the ball out to Stines in transition. Stines' layup at 9;16 made it a one-point Patriots' lead.
- Faure pulled down a defensive rebound after a George Mason missed 3-pointer, and on the offensive end he caught a Commander pass and spun to the basket, converting a layup while being fouled. He made the free throw, and Loyola led 44-42 at 8:44. Darius Maddox hit a three, however, 21 seconds later to give George Mason the lead back. His basket would start a 12-1 Patriots run that would stretch their lead to 54-45 with 3:55 to play.
- Perry led Loyola with 13 points, while Stines scored 11 and Faure had 10. Commander led all players with four assists, and David Brown III and Milos Ilic both had six rebounds. Hall scored a game-best 17 points and had 13 rebounds for the Patriots.
Spread Out Scoring
- Entering Friday's game against St. Mary's, Loyola has seven players who are averaging six or more points per game this season with Deon Perry's 12.1 leading the way.
- D'Angelo Stines (10.0) and Alonso Faure (8.1) are next on the list for Loyola, while Golden Dike (8.0) and Milos Ilic (7.2) 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 seven of the players – including Chris Kuzemka (6.7) – 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.
Stines Scores Off The Bench
- D'Angelo Stines has come off the bench in the Greyhounds' last four games, and the junior guard has pushed his scoring average back to double digits with 11 or more points in the three most-recent games.
- Stines scored 12 against both La Salle and Mount St. Mary's, and he had 11 at George Mason. This season, he has scored 10 or more points in seven of Loyola's 11 games with a high of 15 coming at UMBC.
- Stines is 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.
- Stines has scored 70 of his 110 points this season in the second half of the 11 games. He is shooting 43.8 percent from the field in the second half compared to 27.3 percent in the first. From behind the arc, his number goes from 25.9 to 43.8 after the break.
Shooting In The Second
- Loyola's shooting has been significantly better in the second half of games, going from 38.1 percent in the opening 20 minutes to 43.6 percent in the next 20.
- Scoring-wise, Deon Perry is averaging 7.4 in the second half of games and 4.5 in the first; D'Angelo Stines' scoring goes from 3.5 to 6.4, and Alonso Faure's rises from 2.6 to 5.4 over 11 games.
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 11 games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .614 (35 of 57).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 56.4 after the George Mason 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 736 total; Roderick Platt is 8th in school history with 745 total rebounds.
- Dike is third in the Patriot League in rebounds per game at 6.9.
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 30 of 66 shots for a 45.5 percent mark while averaging 7.2 points and 5.2 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 8.1 points per game, and his field-goal percentage is 49.3 percent.
- Over the last six games – dating back to the Missouri contest – Faure leads the team with 11.2 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 54.1 percent that ranks fourth in school history.
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 12.1 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 fifth in assists (3.7).
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 20 games this season, Aldama is averaging 11.9 points and 5.9 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
- The Greyhounds break for Christmas before returning to action on Friday, December 29, at St. Joseph's University.
- Patriot League games start on Wednesday, January 3 at Colgate.
