Game Information
Opponent	Boston College Eagles
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Time	6:00 p.m.
Location	Chestnut Hill, Mass. | Conte Forum
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Online Media	ACCNX/ESPN+ | Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays the final game of a three-game road trip on Tuesday, November 19, when it heads to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, for a 6 p.m. game at Boston College.
• Loyola has nine players who are averaging five or more points per game through the year's first four contests. Three are above 10 points per game.
• The Greyhounds have thus far had more rebounds than their opponents in three of their four games, averaging 38.8 rebounds to 32.0. Milos Ilic leads the team with 8.3 rebounds per game.
• Josh Loeffler is on the bench as the Greyhounds' head coach after taking the position as Loyola's 22nd all-time head coach in March 2024.
• He is joined on the bench by four assistant coaches: Matt Blue, Kevin Farrell, Ricky Hernandez and Khyle Diaz. 
• The Greyhounds will be a new-look team in more ways than just its head coach for the 2024-25 season. Of the 6,475 total minutes played by Loyola players last year, only 53 percent of those return on the roster.
• The game is the fifth of 11 non-conference contests for the Greyhounds this season before they start their 18-game non-conference slate.

Watch The Action

• The Loyola-Boston College game will stream live on ACCNX and ESPN+.

Series History Versus Boston College

• Loyola and Boston College, two Jesuit, Catholic universities founded in 1852 and 1863, respectively, will meet for the second time in series history on Tuesday night.
• The Eagles won the first meeting, 90-57, on November 17, 2008, in the opening round of the Preseason NIT (then called the NIT Season Tip-Off).
• Jamal Barney came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points for the Greyhounds, while Brett Harvey and Boston-area native Brian Rudolph scored 11 and 10, respectively, for Loyola. Joe Trapani had 20 to lead four Eagles in double figures.

About The Eagles

• Boston College brings a 2-1 record into Tuesday night's game after securing a 72-69 win over Temple on Friday night at the Conte Forum.
• Donald Hand Jr. leads three Eagles averaging 11 or more per game with an 18.7 points per game average. Elijah Strong is next on the scoring list for Boston College with 12.7 per game, while Chad Venning averages 11.0.
• The Eagles are shooting just 37 percent from the field, but they are averaging 40.3 rebounds per game and 14.67 on the offensive glass.
• Loyola and Boston College share one common opponent this year. The Eagles lost an 80-55 decision at VCU on November 8, and Loyola dropped an 83-57 game to the Rams in its last outing on Saturday.

Last Time Out

• Loyola led host VCU through the game's first nine-plus minutes on Saturday night, but the host Rams took a six-point halftime lead and turned it into an 83-57 victory 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.

Spreading The Scoring

• Three Loyola players are averaging 10 or more points this year with Milos Ilic at 11.8, Jordan Stiemke with 10.8 and Braeden Speed with an even 10.0, through four games.
• Going further down the stats sheet, seven Greyhounds have averaged 6.0 or more after four games: Jacob Theodosiou (7.5), Veljko Ilic (7.0), Chris Kuzemka (6.0) and David Brown III (6.0).
• Milos Ilic (43) and Stiemke (39) have taken the most shots, but those seven players all have 15 or more attempts from the field.

Rookie Honors

• Braeden Speed earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after averaging 12.0 points, 3.0 steals and 2.5 assists in two games during the season's first week.
• His 24 points were the most by a Loyola player in their first two games with the program since Andre Walker scored 17 at Texas Tech and 11 versus Cornell in the first two games of his career in November 2014. Walker would go on to earn All-Patriot League honors three times.
• Speed scored 13 in the opener against Columbia, tallying his first points five seconds into his collegiate career after grabbing the loose ball off the tip and getting to the rim for two.
• He followed that performance with 11 points and five steals in less than 17 minutes Saturday versus Lancaster Bible.

D Against Threes

• Loyola enters the game at Boston College leading the Patriot League and ranked No. 16 in NCAA Division I in 3-point percentage defense. Opponents have made just 19 of 81 (.235) from behind the arc through four games.
• No Loyola opponent has made 31 percent of better from 3-point range in a game this year. VCU shot 8 of 26 (.308), the best a Greyhounds foe has finished.

Clash Of Strengths

• Loyola comes into Tuesday night's game holding opponents to just eight offensive rebounds per game. The Greyhounds rank in the top third of the nation (109th) in Ken Pom's offensive rebounding percentage by opponents. 
• Meanwhile, Boston College is averaging 14 offensive boards per game and is 62nd in Ken Pom's offensive rebounding percentage at 35.5 percent.

Speed Efficiency

• Braeden Speed has made the most of his shot attempts this season as the first-year guard has knocked down 56.5 percent of attempts (13 of 23) from the field. He's also made 12 of 13 (.923) from the free-throw line.
• Speed has been at his best when getting inside looks and is shooting 68.8 percent from 2-point range (11 of 16) through four games.

Five Above Ten

• Five Loyola players scored in double figures in the season opener against Columbia, marking the first time in 117 games.
• The last time the Greyhounds did so was in a February 19, 2020, game against Army West Point which was an 81-77 victory at home. In that game, Andrew Kostecka scored 17, Isaiah Hart had 16, Santi Aldama scored 13, KaVaughn Scott added 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Cam Spencer scored 11.

Contributions In Many Areas

• Jacob Theodosiou has led Loyola in minutes played through four games as the only player on the roster averaging more than 24 minutes per contest.
• He is fourth on the team in scoring with 7.5 points per game, but he has found many ways to contribute other than just scoring.
• Theodosiou is second on the team in rebounding with 20 total and an average of 5.0 per game, while he is second with 1.2 steals per game.

Efficient With More Shots

• Milos Ilic has taken 10 or more shots from the field three times this year and seven times in his career. 
• The senior from Serbia went 7 of 10 from the field against Columbia in the season opener, and he was then 6 of 12 versus NJIT on November 12. In the seven games he has taken 10 or more shots, Ilic is 38 of 78 (.487).
• In only two of those games – a December 2023 contest at La Salle and this year's VCU game – did Ilic not shoot 50 percent or better from the field; he was 7 of 23 shooting in those games.
• Ilic also had the second double-double of his career with 18 points and 11 rebounds in the opener against the Lions. He had his first with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the aforementioned game against La Salle. It was Ilic's fifth career game with 10 or more rebounds, the other four coming last season.

Continuing To Board

• By outrebounding Columbia (34-31), Lancaster Bible (48-24) and NJIT (39-31) in the year's first three games, Loyola continued a strength from the 2023-24 season.
• During the 2023-24 season, Loyola pulled down 34.3 rebounds to its opponents 32.8.

Addition From Injury

• While the Greyhounds lost a significant number of minutes played from last year's roster, they do return a considerable group that was out last season due to injury.
• Chris Kuzemka was averaging 6.7 points and shooting 36.7 percent from 3-point range through nine games when a broken hand in the December 6 contest at La Salle forced him to miss the rest of the year.
• A guard, Kuzemka averaged 21.6 minutes per game before his injury and had made one start. His season-high of 15 points came at Columbia, a week before his injury.
• Veljko Ilic missed all of last season and the last chunk of the 2022-23 season with an injury, but his return bolsters the Greyhounds' post play.
• Ilic averaged 13.7 minutes of action in 44 games from 2021-23, scoring 5.2 points and grabbing 3.3 rebounds per game.
• Samuel Gibbs was a rotation player for Loyola in the first five games of the year, averaging 6.6 minutes per, before missing the remainder of the season with an injury. A pair of freshmen, Troy Cicero Jr. and Matt Gray were limited to four games and one game, respectively, last year.

Twins Back Together

• Twins Milos and Veljko Ilic are rarely apart off the court, but they have been separated in playing time since the 2021-22 season.
• They played together in 26 games that year before a knee injury cut Milos Ilic's season short during the second half of Patriot League play.
• He would miss the entirety of the 2022-23 season while rehabilitating the leg, and Veljko Ilic missed the first 13 games of that year with an off-season injury. He came back to the lineup to play in 14 games during 2022-23 before injuring his knee and missing the remainder of the year and all of 2023-24.
• Milos Ilic was on the court last year, save for two games, but the November 4 season-opener was the first time they played in a regular-season game together in 993 days since February 16, 2022, the date of Milos' injury.

Milos In The Middle

• A solid player his first two seasons on the court for the Greyhounds, Milos Ilic is expected to take an elevated role in the offense this season as the team's top returning scorer.
• Last year, Ilic averaged 7.6 points per game on just under seven shots per game. He shot 48.1 percent from the field in the process, a number that was identical in non-conference play versus Patriot League games.
• Ilic had his first career double-double in December 2023 at La Salle and finished the year third on the team with 5.1 rebounds per game.
• Through four games, he is averaging 11.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. He is shooting 52.9 percent from 2-point range this year.

Stiemke Spark

• Jordan Stiemke drew his first starting assignment for Loyola on February 3, 2024, against Holy Cross and scored five points in 17 minutes of action. He then upped his playing time to 25 minutes on February 7 at American, converting a layup and free throw for the game-winning points while finishing with six points and six rebounds.
• He then saw 32 minutes of action against Colgate on February 10, scoring 12 points for career highs in both categories. The freshman from Bel Air, Maryland, came up with another career-high four days later at Lafayette, going for 18 points in 38 minutes of action.
• Stiemke had his best statistical game on February 25 at Boston University, scoring 23 points on 8 of 18 shooting and 5 of 10 from the floor.
• The native of Bel Air, Maryland, was Loyola's second-leading scorer after moving into the starting rotation for the last 10 games of 2023-24, averaging 10.3 points. Prior to that, he had scored just 34 points in 15 games.
• This season, Stiemke has continued to be one of the Greyhounds' best scorers. Through four contests, he is second on the team with 10.8 points per game; he has a team-best eight 3-pointers made.

At The Next Level

• As a school of less than 4,000 undergraduate students, Loyola University Maryland boasted three former student-athletes on NBA rosters as players and one as a head coach last month on opening night. Two members of the men's basketball incoming class of 2019, Santi Aldama (SAHN-tee ALL-dah-muh) and Cam Spencer are on the Memphis Grizzlies' roster, and four-time men's lacrosse All-American is a member of the Golden State Warriors.
• Michael Malone, a 1994 graduate of Loyola, was a four-year letterwinner as a point guard for the Greyhounds. He is now the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.
• Aldama was a first-round draft pick in the 2021 NBA Draft after leading the Patriot League in scoring and rebounding in 2020-21, and Cam Spencer led the conference in scoring the following season.
• Aldama has played in 176 NBA games through November 1 and is averaging 13.8 points and 7.0 rebounds through six outings this season.
• He starred for his native Spain this summer, earning TISSOT Most Outstanding Player honors at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament before averaging 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in three games during the Olympics.
• Cam Spencer, who was a three-year starter for the Greyhounds from 2019-22, and won an NCAA Championship at Connecticut in 2023-24, has not yet played in an NBA game this season.
• Pat Spencer holds the Loyola men's lacrosse records for career assists and points and was the 2019 NCAA Division I Player of the Year for the Greyhounds. He switched to basketball after graduating from Loyola and has seen action in six career games with the Warriors.
• Malone had 282 assists in 108 career games with the Greyhounds from 1989-93. He is in his 12th season as an NBA head coach and guided the Nuggets to the 2023 NBA Championship.

Up Next

• The Greyhounds return to Reitz Arena on Tuesday, November 26, for a home game against VMI at 7 p.m.