RICHMOND, Va. – Loyola University Maryland men's basketball led host Virginia Commonwealth University through the game's first nine-plus minutes, but the host Rams took a six-point halftime lead and turned it into an 83-57 victory on Saturday night at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.
Three Rams scored 20 or more points, led by Jack Clark's 25 on 9 of 11 shooting. Joe Bamisile added 22 points, and Max Shulga scored 20 and had 10 rebounds with seven assists for the Rams.
Milos Ilic and
Braeden Speed each had 10 points for the Greyhounds, and Ilic grabbed a team-best eight rebounds.
Tyson Commander scored nine points, and
Jacob Theodosiou scored eight for Loyola.
After the Greyhounds' early lead, VCU took a 23-14 lead on a Shulga three with 8:34 left in the first half; the Greyhounds used an 11-0 run which was capped by the final six points from Speed. His traditional 3-point play put Loyola up 25-23 with 5:49 to go in the half.
VCU scored 12 of the next 13 points to lead by six, but two
Milos Ilic free throws with 1:33 left in the first half chopped VCU's advantage to two, 32-30. Bamisile scored the last four points of the stanza to make it a 36-30 game at the break.
The Rams took an 11-point lead, 44-33, on two Bamisile free throws just under five minutes into the second, and they would push the lead to 21 with 8:28 left in the game.
VCU held Loyola to 28.6 percent from the floor in the second half and 33.3 percent in the game. The Greyhounds committed 17 turnovers that turned into 21 VCU points.
Loyola will wrap-up a three-game road trip on Tuesday, November 19, with a road game at Boston College that is set for 6 p.m.
