BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland trailed by as many as nine in the second and was down four with less than two minutes to play ono Saturday, but the Greyhounds forced overtime, and a
David Brown III 3-pointer put the Greyhounds in front for good during an 83-77 Patriot League victory over American University to close the regular-season.
Kenneth Jones, who was one of two Loyola players to score 20 or more points, finishing with 21, drove to the free throw line and threw a pass to Brown in the deep corner, and his shot from in front of the Loyola bench found net for his first points of the game.
The shot with 49 seconds left gave Loyola a 78-76 lead, and Loyola made 5 of 8 free throws from that point forward to secure the win.
With the win, Loyola moved into a tie for sixth place in the final conference standings. They will host College of the Holy Cross in a Patriot League Championships First Round game on Tuesday, February 28, at 7 p.m.
American went up as many as eight in the first half and then had a 33-31 advantage at halftime. They then went ahead by nine, 45-36, on an Elijah Stephens transition layup with 16:09 left in the first half.
Later in the half, Matt Rogers scored on a hook shot to make it 51-43 American at 13:29, but
Deon Perry scored nine points during an 11-3 Greyhounds run over the next three minutes.
Jaylin Andrews grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed Loyola free throw and threw a pass to Perry who made a three at 10:25, tying the game at 54-54.
American denied the Greyhounds the opportunity to regain the lead after that, however, and a Rogers basket with 5:35 left in regulation pushed the Eagles' advantage to 63-58. This time, it was Jones who made a three on Loyola's next possession, and it was a one-possession game again.
Loyola eventually tied the score at 65-65 with two
Alonso Faure with 3:06 on the clock. It took more than a minute for either team to score after that, but American converted four free throws and led 69-65 with 1:40 on the clock.
Andrews drove the into the lane and fought through traffic to score with 1:27 left, and after a defensive stop, he scored again in the paint to tie the score at 69-69 with 41 ticks remaining.
Stephens drove baseline for American and scored with 26 seconds left, giving the Eagles a two-point lead, but a good offensive possession for the Greyhounds where the ball moved quickly saw Brown fire a pass to Faure on the right block, and his layup tied the game with 11 seconds to go.
The Eagles had the chance for a game-winner, but Jones stripped Colin Smalls of the ball near the top of the perimeter, and the game went to overtime.
American and Loyola traded leads early in overtime before Rogers put the Eagles up 76-75 with a hook shot at 1:08. It was Brown's three that pushed the Greyhounds up for what would be the rest of the game.
He would also make two free throws with 27 seconds left after grabbing a rebound, and two Perry free throws at 17 seconds made the final margin of victory.
Perry led Loyola with 22 points as one of four players in double figures. In addition to Jones' 21, Faure scored 16 points and Andrews had 13, nine that came in the second half or overtime. Faure led Loyola with nine rebounds.
Rogers scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Eagles, and Stephens had 16 points.
Andrews matched his season-high with five assists, and Dike and Jonoes each had four. American committed 12 turnovers, 11 of which came from Loyola steals. Andrews and Dike each had three, while Perry and Jones both tallied two. Loyola committed a season-low five turnovers in the game.
