Game Information
Opponent	Delaware State Hornets
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Saturday, December 7, 2024
Time	2:00 p.m.
Location	Dover, Del. | Memorial Hall
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Online Media	No Stream | Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays the second game of a three-game road trip on Saturday, December 7, when the Greyhounds head to Dover, Delaware, for a 2 p.m. game at Delaware State.
• Loyola has six players averaging 6.1 or more points per game through the year's first seven contests; five are at 8.0 or higher.
• The Greyhounds have thus far had more rebounds than their opponents in five of their seven games, averaging 38.1 rebounds to 32.1. Milos Ilic leads the team with 9.7 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 eighth of 11 non-conference contests for the Greyhounds this season before they start their 18-game non-conference slate.

Series History Versus Delaware State

• Loyola and Delaware State will meet for the fourth time in series history when the teams take the floor on Saturday afternoon in the second of a two-game series that saw the teams meet last year on the Greyhounds' home floor.
• Loyola leads the all-time series, 2-1, after the Hornets captured a 79-73 overtime victory on December 2, 2023. Golden Dike rebounded a Deon Perry miss and scored with less than 20 seconds to play in regulation to force overtime. The Greyhounds led 67-65 with 3:19 left in overtime after another Dike basket, but Khyrie Staten made a three with 2:46 to go, and the Hornets pulled away for the win.
• Alonso Faure scored 16 to lead Loyola, while Dike had eight points and nine rebounds. Martaz Robinson had a double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds for Delaware State.

About The Hornets

• Delaware State brings a 3-6 record into Saturday's game despite averaging 73.1 points per game to its opponents 72.3.
• Martaz Robinson leads the Hornets 16.7 points per game, while Robert Smith is averaging 14.4 and Kaseem Watson, 12.7.

Last Time Out

• Loyola held Coppin State to just six made field goals in the second half, while the Greyhounds shot 50-percent from the field after the break to rally for a 68-57 road victory on Monday night.
• Jacob Theodosiou scored a career-high 23 points and hit three 3-pointers in the final 11:21 of regulation, while Milos Ilic had his third-straight game with a double-double, scoring 17 with 10 rebounds and four assists. His twin brother, Veljko Ilic, returned after missing the last three games to score 12 points.
• Coppin State led by as many as seven late in the first half when Jonathan Dunn scored with 2:13 left in the period. Garrett Brennan, Milos Ilic and Tyson Commander all scored in the paint between that basket and halftime to make it a one-point Eagles lead at the break, 34-33.
• Milos Ilic gave Loyola a one-point lead with a paint basket 1:33 into the second half. The Eagles would retake the lead but only go up by two with 14:58 on the clock. Veljko Ilic would score off a Greyhounds offensive rebound at 13:45, pushing Loyola up one, 40-39, a lead it would not relinquish.
• Theodosiou hit the first of his second-half threes with 11:21 left, and Braeden Speed followed with another on the next possession to give the Greyhounds a 50-43 lead.
• The second three of the stretch by Theodosiou with 8:10 to go made it an eight-point Loyola lead, and his third gave the Greyhounds the first double-digit lead of the game for either team, 64-54, with 65 seconds left in regulation.
• Loyola doubled-up the Eagles on the boards, grabbing 42 rebounds to Coppin State's 21.

Seeing Double Again

• Milos and Veljko Ilic are one set of 10 twins who play on the same men's basketball team at the NCAA Division I level this year.
• On Monday, night, the faced one of the other sets of twins, Coppin State's Cam'Ron and Car'Ron Brown. Saturday at Delaware State, they'll play a second set, the Hornets' Kareem and Kasem Watson.

Second-Half Turnarounds

• Loyola has trailed at halftime of each of its last two 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 14.9 points and a Patriot League-high 9.7 rebounds per game.
• Ilic has shot a conference-best 54.5 percent from the field through seven games, and he is shooting 61.7 percent from 2-point range.

Pounding The Boards

• Milos Ilic leads the Patriot League in rebounding through games of December 4 with 9.7 per game. His rebounding average is also 19th in NCAA Division I, and he ranks in the top 65 nationally in both offensive (15th, 3.71) and defensive (61st, 6.0) rebounds.

Three In A Row

• Milos Ilic has recorded double-doubles in each of the Greyhounds' last three games, the first time a Loyola players has done that since current Memphis Grizzlies' forward Santi Aldama did so between Febraury 7-13.
• Ilic has four double-doubles this year, tied for 11th most in Division I, and five in his career.

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.

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 second on the team in rebounding with 28 total and an average of 4.0 per game, and he leads the team with 10 steals (1.4 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.

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. Overall, the Greyhounds have a 3.5 rebounds per game margin over their opponents this year (37.5 to 34.0).
• During the 2023-24 season, Loyola pulled down 34.3 rebounds to its opponents 32.8.

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 seven contests, he is third on the team with 10.0 points per game; he has a team-best 12 3-pointers made. Spanning the last two seasons, Stiemke is averaging 10.2 points over the Greyhounds' last 17 games.

A More Commanding Presence

• Tyson Commander started the year with just four points in 33 minutes during Loyola's first two games, but he's stepped up his offensive output over the last five outings. Commander has 39 points (7.8 per) over those five games with nine or more three of Loyola's last four (VCU, Boston College, VMI). That includes a 12-point game against Boston College, and he also tied his career-high with six rebounds versus VMI.

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

• The Greyhounds wrap up their current road swing on Saturday, December 14, with a trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland, for the 142nd all-time meeting between Loyola and Mount St. Mary's.