Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball returns to Reitz Arena for its next Patriot League contest. The Greyhounds will host Lafayette College on Wednesday, January 24, in a game scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
- The contest will stream live on ESPN+.
- Golden Dike leads the Patriot League in field-goal percentage this season. He is shooting 58.3 percent from the field (63 of 108) through 19 games.
- Dike is second in the conference in rebounds per game (7.4).
- Deon Perry tops the Greyhounds with a 15.1 points per game average, a mark that is third in the Patriot League this year. His 19.5 points per game through six conference games thus far is second in the conference.
- Perry has now played in 24 Patriot League regular-season games and is averaging 15.1 points in those contests (362 total).
- Milos Ilic has raised his scoring average from 7.2 points per game after a December 16 contest at George Mason to its current point of 8.7. Over an eight-game stretch, Ilic is second on the team with an 10.8 points per game mark.
- Ilic has shot 63.0 percent during those six games (34 of 54) to bring his season percentage to 53.3.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Lafayette game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus Lafayette
- Loyola and Lafayette will meet for the 29th time in series history, and the 27th time since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2013-14, on Wednesday night.
- The Leopards hold a 15-13 advantage in the all-time series after the teams split the last two seasons' meetings, each winning on its own home floor.
- Lafayette won last year's first meet, 62-46, in Easton, but the Greyhounds came back with a 73-70 victory against the Leopards on February 15, 2023, in Reitz Arena.
- Loyola is 10-6 all-time against the Leopards in Baltimore.
Last Time Out
- Alonso Faure recorded his fourth career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebound, and Deon Perry eclipsed the 20-point mark for the fifth time this season with a game-high 26, but Holy Cross pulled away for an 86-78 victory on Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center.
- The teams played to a 34-34 tie after the opening half, and Loyola took a 42-40 lead less than three minutes into the second on a D'Angelo Stines 3-pointer, but the Crusaders made two-thirds of their second-half shots (16 of 24) in the win.
- Two free throws by Perry with 8:06 left in regulation tied the game at 61-61, but Holy Cross had three-point players on three of their next four possessions.
- Will Batchelder made a left-corner three 12 seconds after Perry's free throws, and Bo Montgomery converted a traditional three-point play with 7:25 on the clock. Batchelder then connected on another three, and the Crusaders' lead with eight, 70-62 with 6:24 on the clock.
- Loyola got that margin down to two, 70-68, in less than two minutes after Milos Ilic bookended a Faure hook shot with two baskets in the paint, but the Greyhounds could not tie or take the lead for the remainder of the game.
- From that point on – covering the last 4:31 of the game – Holy Cross was 5 of 5 from the field and 6 of 6 from the foul line.
- Perry's 26 were four off his career-high set on January 10 at Army West Point and give him four games with 20 or higher this season against Patriot League teams. Faure had a season-best 11 rebounds and was two off his career-high of 18 points from November at Missouri. Stines added 11 points for the Greyhounds, while Ilic and Tyson Commander each scored five.
Building On 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 19 games – the only Loyola player to do so – averaging 25.6 minutes, 8.7 points and 4.9 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. He scored a season-high against another Atlantic 10 Conference opponent, registering 13 at St. Joseph's.
- Over the last eight games, Ilic is second on the team with an 10.8 points per game mark. Ilic has shot 63.0 percent during those seven games (34 of 54) to bring his second percentage to 53.3.
Three Of The Top Four
- Loyola's trio of Golden Dike, Milos Ilic and Alonso Faure are three of the top four players who are qualified for the Patriot League leaders in field-goal percentage.
- Dike tops the conference at 58.5 percent; Ilic has risen to third while shooting 53.0 from the field, and Faure's 6 of 8 outing at Holy Cross raised his percentage to 52.3 percent which is good for fourth.
- Together, they are a combined 184 of 337 from the field this season, good for 54.6 percent. The rest of the Greyhounds are a combined 38.9 percent from the field.
Perry's Last Eight
- Deon Perry has increased his scoring output over the last eight games – including four games of 22 or more with a career-high 30 coming at Army West Point – to average of 19.3 over the stretch.
- The 2022-23 Patriot League All-Rookie guard has shot 45 percent from 3-point range during the stretch, averaging 3.4 made threes per game.
- Prior to the last eight games, Perry was 22 of 76 from 3-point range (28.9 percent) in the season's first 11 games.
- The eight games have boosted his scoring average by more than two points to 15.1. He is now third in the conference in points per game and seventh (3.1) in assists.
- Perry has raised his career mark to 12.7 points.
Triple-Double Time
- Golden Dike logged the second triple-double in program history, and the first in almost 35 years, on January 6 against Lehigh when he scored 13, grabbed 11 rebounds and had 10 assists.
- His feat was the first for a men's basketball player at Loyola since Dave Wojcik turned in the first on February 4, 1989, during a home win over St. Francis (Pa.) with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
- Dike, who had six career double doubles coming into the January 6 game, had a career-best 10 assists in the contest against the Mountain Hawks, eclipsing her previous high of eight. As of January 11, his triple-double is one of 20 in NCAA Division I this year. At 6-foot-10, Dike is tied with UNC Asheville's Drew Pembler as the tallest player to post one this season.
Top 5 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, and at Holy Cross, he became the fifth with 800 or more. Later, in the game at St. Joseph's, Dike's season-high 14 rebounds vaulted him from ninth in school history to fifth all-time where he sits entering the Lafayette game with 801. Mark Rohde (1972-76) is fourth in school history with 836.
- Dike has also risen the Patriot League's all-time charts and checks in 12th all-time with his 801 boards. Lafayette's Stefan Ciosci is 11th with 831.
Twenty Or More For Deon
- Deon Perry's 26-point effort at Holy Cross marked the 11th time in his 52 collegiate games that he has scored 20 or more. Since 2011-12, eight Loyola players have scored 20 or more points 11 or more times. The only player to have done so in fewer games is Santi Aldama who had 14 20-plus point games in 27 Loyola games before he was a first-round draft pick of the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2021 NBA Draft.
- Three-pointers have been the spark to Perry's 20-point games. He has shot 48 of 98 from 3-point range in those nine games, good for 49.0 percent. In his other 41 games at Loyola, Perry is 75 of 212 (33.4 percent) from behind the arc.
- Loyola is 8-3 all-time when Perry scores 20 or more points.
Record-Setting Performance
- Loyola's shooting against St. Mary's on December 22, 2023, was on point as the Greyhounds set a school record by making 71.7 percent of their shots from the field (33 of 46). The program's previous best mark of 70.5 percent (31 of 44) came in January 1978 against Lehigh.
- In the win over the Seahawks, Loyola made 21 of 27 (77.8 percent) of its 2-point field goals while shooting 63.2 percent (12 of 19) from 3-point range. Loyola was 11 of 11 on 2-point attempts in the second half and shot 88.9 percent (16 of 18) overall after the break.
Stines Steps Up As Second Scorer
- D'Angelo Stines has been a solid second scorer for the Greyhounds this season behind Deon Perry, averaging 9.8 points though 19 games this year.
- Stines has scored 10 or more in 12 of the Greyhounds' 19 outings.
- He 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.
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 19 games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .583 (63 of 108).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 56.3 after the Holy Cross game.
- His three games with 14 or more points, through 19 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.
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. Faure was two off his career-high with 16 points to go with 11 rebounds – for his third career double-double – at Holy Cross, and he is now averaging 7.5 points per game, and his field-goal percentage is 52.3 percent.
- 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 54.4 percent that ranks fourth in school history.
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.
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, averaged 9.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the Grizzlies in 77 games played.
- In 33 games this season, Aldama is averaging 10.3 points and 5.5 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. Aldama had his fourth double-double of the season, and second against San Antonio, with 13 points and 11 boards on January 2.
Up Next
- Loyola goes on the road for its next two games, starting with a Saturday, January 27, outing at Navy.
- The Greyhounds then head to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, for a Wednesday, January 31, contest at Bucknell University.
