Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball starts the second half of Patriot League games on Saturday, February 3, when it hosts College of the Holy Cross.
- Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. in a game that 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 (70 of 120) through 22 games.
- Dike is second in the conference in rebounds per game (6.9).
- Deon Perry tops the Greyhounds with a 16.2 points per game average, a mark that is second in the Patriot League this year. His 20.8 points per game through nine conference games thus far tops the League.
- Perry has now played in 27 Patriot League regular-season games and is averaging 16.0 points in those contests (432 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 8.1. Over the 11-game stretch, Ilic is second on the team with an 9.4 points per game mark.
- Ilic has shot 56.9 percent during those 11 games (37 of 65) to bring his season percentage to 50.8.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Holy Cross game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus Holy Cross
- Loyola and Holy Cross are set to meet for the 27th in series history and the 23rd time since Loyola joined the Patriot League for the 2013-14 season.
- The Crusaders hold a 14-12 lead in the all-time series after winning an 86-78 decision on January 20, 2024, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Deon Perry scored 26, and Alonso Faure had 16 points and 11 rebounds in that game for Loyola, but Holy Cross made 16 of 24 shots in the second half to turn a 34-34 game at the break into an eight-point win.
- The teams split last year's regular-season series with each winning on its own home floor last year before Loyola won, 73-69 , in the Patriot League Championships First Round a year ago. . The Crusaders had a 63-55 win on January 8 in Worcester, Massachusetts, before the Greyhounds won, 90-68, in Baltimore in late February.
- Loyola is 8-4 all-time in games played in Worcester.
Last Time Out
- Bucknell forced 13 second-half turnovers by Loyola and held the Greyhounds to 31.8 percent from the field on Wednesday night as the Bison turned a 33-31 halftime advantage into a 67-52 Patriot League victory at Sojka Pavilion.
- Bucknell took a two-point lead less than two seconds before halftime on a Noah Williamson basket, and the Bison extended their advantage to double digits just over four minutes into the second half on a Josh Adoh three with 15:43 left in regulation.
- Loyola battled to pull back within six, 45-39, on a Golden Dike dunk just over four minutes later, but Jack Forrest converted a four-point play at 11:07 with a 3-pointer and free throw after drawing a foul.
- Elvin Edmonds IV made it a 51-39 Bucknell lead with a layup at 10:52, but a three by D'Angelo Stines and a Garrett Brennan layup made it a seven-point gap at 8:59.
- The Greyhounds would twice trim the deficit to six – once on a traditional 3-point play by Deon Perry and alter with two Golden Dike free throws – but Loyola could draw no closer.
- Perry led Loyola with 22 points and five assists, while Alonso Faure added his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
- Williamson had a game-high 28 points for Bucknell, while Forrest added 14 for the Bison.
Notes On 30
- Deon Perry scored 30 against Navy on January 27, marking the second time this season he has reached that mark. He is one of 76 players in NCAA Division I to score 30 twice this season (per Sports Reference), and he is the only Patriot League player to turn the feat.
- His first 30-point effort came on January 10 at Army West Point and set his career high that he tied at Navy.
- Perry is the fifth Loyola player to post 30 or more points twice in a season in the last decade; he is the first since Santi Aldama did so three times in 2020-2021.
Taking Advantage Of The Start
- Garrett Brennan, a sophomore walk-on for the Greyhounds, drew the first start of his collegiate career at Navy, and he made good on Tavaras Hardy's decision by making 5 of 6 shots, all three of his 3-point attempts and both free throws. Brennan finished with a career-high 15 points, eclipsing his previous best of nine. He started again at Bucknell and had four points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
- The Northern Virginia native, who is a second cousin of Loyola Assistant Coach Mike Brennan (Garrett's father, John, is Mike's first cousin), has seen his playing time grow this season after seeing 41 total minutes in five games last year before an injury cut his season short.
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 22 games – the only Loyola player to do so – averaging 26.0 minutes, 8.1 points and 5.2 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 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.
- In Patriot League games, Ilic is second on the team in scoring (8.7 points per game) and rebounding (5.4).
Three Of The Top Six
- Loyola's trio of Golden Dike, Alonso Faure and Milos Ilic are three of the top six players who are qualified for the Patriot League leaders in field-goal percentage.
- Dike leads the conference at 58.1 percent; Faure has risen to fourth while shooting 51.5 from the field, and Ilic is right behind in sixth at 50.8 percent.
- Together, they are a combined 204 of 382 from the field this season, good for 53.4 percent. The rest of the Greyhounds are a combined 38.5 percent from the field.
Perry's Last 11
- Deon Perry has increased his scoring output over the last 11 games – including six games of 22 or more with matching career-highs 30 coming at Army West Point and at Navy – to average of 20.4 over the stretch.
- The 2022-23 Patriot League All-Rookie guard has shot 41.9 percent from 3-point range during the 11 games, averaging 3.3 made threes per game.
- Prior to the last 11 games, Perry was 22 of 76 from 3-point range (28.9 percent) in the season's first 11 games.
- The 11 games have boosted his scoring average by more than two points to 16.2. He is now second in the conference in points per game and sixth (3.2) in assists. Perry leads the conference in free-throw percentage (88.1 percent)
- Perry has raised his career mark to 13.3 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 27, his triple-double is one of 22 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 Navy game with 812. 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 812 boards. Lafayette's Stefan Ciosci is 11th with 831.
Twenty Or More For Deon
- Deon Perry's 22-point effort at Bucknell marked the 13th time in his 55 collegiate games that he has scored 20 or more. Since 2011-12, eight Loyola players have scored 20 or more points 12 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 55 of 115 from 3-point range in those nine games, good for 47.8 percent. In his other 41 games at Loyola, Perry is 75 of 212 (33.4 percent) from behind the arc.
- Loyola is 9-4 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 9.1 points though 22 games this year.
- Stines has scored 10 or more in 12 of the Greyhounds' 22 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 22 games, he leads the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .583 (70 of 120).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 56.4 after the Navy game.
- His three games with 14 or more points, through 20 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 7.6 points per game, and his field-goal percentage is 51.5 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 54.1 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 37 games this season, Aldama is averaging 10.8 points and 5.7 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 heads to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, February 7, to face American in a 7 p.m. game.
