Game Information
Opponent	Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Saturday, December 14, 2024
Time	7:00 p.m.
Location	Emmitsburg, Md. | Knott Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Online Media	ESPN+ | Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball wraps up a three-game road trip on Saturday, December 14, when it heads to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to play at Mount St. Mary's University in the teams' 179th all-time meeting.
• Loyola has seven players averaging 6.0 or more points per game through the year's first seven contests; five are at 7.6 or higher.
• The Greyhounds have thus far had more rebounds than their opponents in five of their eight games, averaging 37.3 rebounds to 32.6. Milos Ilic leads the team with 9.5 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 are 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 ninth of 11 non-conference contests for the Greyhounds this season before they start their 18-game non-conference slate.

Watch The Action

• The Loyola-Mount St. Mary's game will stream live on ESPN+.

Series History Versus Mount St. Mary's

• Loyola and Mount St. Mary's will meet for the 179th time in series history on Saturday, making it the most-played matchup in State of Maryland history. 
• The Mountaineers have won the last two games and hold a 102-76 lead in the all-time series.
• The Catholic schools first met in December 1910 when the Greyhounds came away with a 35-24 victory in Emmitsburg.

About The Mountaineers

• Mount St. Mary's is 6-3 overall and 1-1 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference heading into Saturday's game. The Mountaineers average 74.0 points per game to their opponents' 73.6.
• Dallas Hobbs leads Mount St. Mary's with 14.0 points per game, while Dola Adebayo and Terrell Ard Jr. are averaging 11.3 and 11.2, respectively. 
• First-year Head Coach Donny Lind is a 2010 Loyola graduate and was a four-year manager on Greyhounds teams coached by Jimmy Patsos.

Last Time Out

• Jordan Stiemke made a turnaround jumper with 6:10 left in regulation to give Loyola a 68-64 lead on the road at Delaware State, but the host Hornets scored 16 of the final 27 points to hold on for an 80-77 non-conference victory last Saturday.
• Five Greyhounds scored in double figures, led by Stiemke's 15 and Milos Ilic's 14, but five Delaware State players scored 10 or more in a game which no player scored more than 15.
• A three by Delaware State's Martaz Robinson with 5:07 to play and a layup by him gave the Hornets at 4:05 gave the Hornets a 69-68 advantage, but Stiemke scored again on a turnaround with 3:42 on the clock, and Loyola was up a point. It was Robinson again with a basket at 3:13, and he made a free throw after being fouled to give Delaware State a 72-70 lead. He scored on a floater with 1:54 to play before Jacob Theodosiou converted in the paint for Loyola 17 ticks later.
• Muneer Newton grabbed a loose ball off a drawn out rebound to score for Delaware State at 1:03, and the lead was 76-70.
• Milos Ilic made a three with 34 seconds remaining to close the gap to a pair, but Corey Perkins had two free throws with 25 seconds left to push the Hornets lead back to four. Braeden Speed drove and scored with contact for Loyola, and it was a two-point game with 15 seconds to play, and the Greyhounds fouled with 11 seconds on the clock.
• The Hornets made one of two from the line, and a Loyola three late went off the mark.
• Stiemke matched Robinson for game-high honors with 15 points, and Milos Ilic added 14 points and had eight rebounds. Speed added 13 points, Theodosiou scored 12 and Chris Kuzemka finished with 10.
• Veljko Ilic had a game-best and career-high 11 rebounds for Loyola.
• The Hornets had a 36-31 rebounding advantage over the Greyhounds, and they received a nine free-throw advantage in the game.

Shooting .750 In Last Three

• Milos Ilic has made 75 percent of his shots over Greyhounds' last three games, going 24 of 30 from the field.
• The senior post player started the stretch with a career-best 12 of 16 on November 26 against VMI before going 6 of 8 in back-to-back outings at Coppin State and Delaware State.
• Ilic has averaged 19.7 points over the three games to boost his season scoring average from 11.8 on November 19 to its current point of 14.8.

Second-Half Turnarounds

• Loyola has trailed at halftime in two of its last three games yet come back for victories against VMI and Coppin State.
• The Greyhounds trailed VMI by as many as 14 points early in the second half on November 26 before coming back for a three-point victory. The comeback was the largest by the Greyhounds since they overcame a 16-point deficit on January 14, 2023 against Navy, a span of 52 games.
• On December 2 at Coppin State, Loyola was down one at halftime and as many as seven in the first half.
• The Greyhounds have shot the ball better in the second half (44.8 to 39.3 percent), but the biggest change was in the defense they have played after the break. Loyola has yielded just 12 field goals – six each to VMI and Coppin State – in the second half of the games while the two opponents have shot just 26.7 percent (12 of 45 combined).

Script Flip

• The second-half comebacks against VMI and Coppin State were also significant compared to the Greyhounds' previous five games this year.
• Coming into the VMI game, Loyola opponents had shot 51.8 percent from the field in the second half of games before the Greyhounds held VMI to 26.1 percent and Coppin State to 27.3.

Focal Point

• Milos Ilic has become the focal point of the Greyhounds' offense this year, and the 6-foot-10 post from Serbia has responded with his best start to a season in four years at Loyola. Ilic has led the Greyhounds with 14.8 points and a Patriot League-high 9.5 rebounds per game.
• Ilic has shot a conference-best 56.3 percent from the field through eight games, and he is shooting 62.7 percent from 2-point range.
• Per Ken Pom, Ilic is taking 25.5 percent of Loyola's shots when he's on the court this season, up from 17.2 percent a year ago and 16.9 as a freshman in 2021-22.

Pounding The Boards

• Milos Ilic leads the Patriot League in rebounding through games of December 11 with 9.5 per game. His rebounding average is also 21st in NCAA Division I, and he ranks in the top 55 nationally in both offensive (21st, 3.50) and defensive (55th, 6.0) rebounds.

Back On The Court

• Veljko Ilic has been a big contributor for the Greyhounds in the last two games after missing the VCU, Boston College and VMI contests with an injury.
• He made 5 of 8 shots at Coppin State and scored 12 points in just 13 minutes of action, and he then had a career-high 11 rebounds on December 7 at Delaware State. He's averaged 8.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in 13.5 minutes per game during the last two.

Dimes, Swats & Boards

• Braeden Speed had seven assists and three blocked shots on November 26 against VMI to become one of just four NCAA Division I players this year with those totals in a game (per Stathead.com as of Nov. 29 games).
• Speed came back with seven rebounds, five assists and seven points in the Greyhounds' next game at Coppin State.
• Over the Greyhounds' last three games, Speed has 16 assists, an average of 5.7 per outing.

Contributions In Many Areas

• Jacob Theodosiou has led Loyola in minutes played (28.2) through seven games as only of only two players on the roster averaging more than 25 minutes per contest.
• The sophomore transfer scored a career-high 23 points at Coppin State, making 4 of 8 3-pointers with three in the final 11 minutes of the comeback win, and he is now second on the team in scoring with 10.3 points per game. In addition to the scoring, he has found many ways to contribute.
• Theodosiou is tied for third ont he team with 3.5 rebounds per game.

Efficient With More Shots

• Milos Ilic has taken 10 or more shots from the field five times this year and nine times in his career. 
• The senior from Serbia went 7 of 10 from the field against Columbia in the season opener, was then 6 of 12 versus NJIT and at Boston College and then made a career-high 12 of 16 shots versus VMI. In the nine games he has taken 10 or more shots, Ilic is 56 of 106 (.528). He is 34 of 63 (.539) in the five games this season.
• In only two of those overall 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 recorded his third career double-double on November 19 at Boston College, scoring 12 points while grabbing a career-best 14 rebounds. He had back-to-back double-doubles for the first time in his career with 28 points and 11 boards against VMI; the 28 points were the first time as a collegian he's scored 20 or more.

Turnaround On The Line

• Loyola ranks second in the Patriot League and No. 64 in the nation as of December 11 with a 75.6 percent mark from the free-throw line. This year's percentage is more than 10 points better than the 64.4 percent the Greyhounds shot from the charity stripe in 2023-24 when they ranked 341st out of 351 NCAA Division I teams.

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. They also saw time together against Lancaster Bible and NJIT, but Veljko missed the VCU, Boston College and VMI games with an injury. He returned to action against Coppin State and scored 12 points in 13 minutes.

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.
• 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' top scorers. Through eight contests, he is second on the team with 10.6 points per game; he has a team-best 15 3-pointers made. Spanning the last two seasons, Stiemke is averaging 10.5 points over the Greyhounds' last 18 games.

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.

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, made his NBA debut on November 20 in a Grizzlies game against Philadelphia with two assists, a block and a rebound in nine minutes. He scored his first NBA basket on November 23... off an Aldama assist.
• 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

• Loyola returns to Reitz Arena for the first time this month when it hosts Hampton on December 21 at 2 p.m.