Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball makes the brief trip down Interstate 95 to Washington, D.C., to face American University on Wednesday, February 7, in Bender Arena.
- Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in a game that will stream live on ESPN+.
- Golden Dike is second in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage this season, shooting 56.8 percent from the field (70 of 120) through 22 games.
- Dike is second in the conference in rebounds per game (6.7).
- Deon Perry tops the Greyhounds with a 16.4 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 28 Patriot League regular-season games and is averaging 16.2 points in those contests (453 total).
- Perry is averaging 23.4 points per game in Loyola last five outings, scoring at least 18 in those contests.
- 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 7.9. Over the 12-game stretch, Ilic is second on the team with an 9.0 points per game mark.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-American game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus American
- Loyola and American will meet for the 106th time in series history and the 24th time as Patriot League foes.
- American leads the all-time series, 54-51, after the Eagles won a 66-52 game on January 15 in Baltimore. American shot 70 percent from the field in the second half and turned a two-point lead at the break into a 14-point win.
- The Eagles took a 71-55 decision in the first game of 2023 on January 2 in Washington, but Loyola came back to deliver an 83-77 victory on February 25 in the teams' regular-season finale in Baltimore.
- The teams first met in 1927-28 when the Eagles pulled out a 27-25 win in Baltimore. They were later conference opponents in the Mason-Dixon Conference from the early 1940s through mid 1970s.
- American is 26-10 in games played on its home floor in the series, and the Eagles hold a 13-9 advantage in Patriot League contests.
Last Time Out
- Holy Cross flipped a four-point halftime deficit into an 11-point lead in the second half, and the Crusaders then held off a late Loyola charge on Saturday evening for a 70-67 Patriot League victory in Reitz Arena.
- Loyola led by as many as six in the first half and was up 35-31 at the break behind 19 first-half point by Deon Perry, but Holy Cross scored the first five of the second half to lead after a Bo Montgomery three just 62 ticks into the period.
- The lead switched hands four times after that and was tied on four occasions, but another Montgomery three at 12:04 gave the Crusaders the lead for good.
- Holy Cross extended the lead to as many as 11 on a Caleb Kenny bucket with 7:19 left, and the advantage was 59-59 following a Wil Batchelder three with 3:02 on the clock.
- Loyola quickly chipped away at that lead a D'Angelo Stines step-back three and then five-straight from Alonso Faure. A traditional 3-point play with a layup and free throw by Faure with 52 seconds left made it a 69-67 game.
- Loyola got a stop defensively following a Faure steal, but the Greyhounds missed a tying shot attempt with seven seconds left.
- Montgomery pulled down the rebound and was fouled; he made 1 of 2 at the line, and a last-second 3-point attempt by the Greyhounds went off the back of the rim.
- Stines scored a career-high 19 points, and Garrett Brennan scored 10 to go with a game-high six rebounds. Brennan and Stines tied for team-high honors with four assists each, and Perry had four steals.
Settling In As A Starter
- Garrett Brennan has brought consistency to his starting role for the Greyhounds over the last three games since making his first career start on January 27 at Navy.
- He scored 15 in that game against the Midshipmen, a to-date career-high, and in the three games, he has averaged 9.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals.
- Brennan is shooting 62.5 percent as a starter, making 10 of 16 shots.
- After his starting debut produced 15 points, he logged double digits for the second time as a collegian, scoring 10 on February 3 versus Holy Cross.
- 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.
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.
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 22 of 23 games averaging 25.9 minutes, 7.9 points and 5.1 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 third on the team in scoring (8.0 points per game) and second in rebounding (5.3).
Two Of The Top Four
- Loyola's duo of Golden Dike and Alonso Faure are two of the top four players who are qualified for the Patriot League leaders in field-goal percentage.
- Dike is second in the conference at 56.8 percent; Faure has risen to fourth while shooting 51.9 from the field.
- Milos Ilic, meanwhile, is one made field goal shy of qualifying while shooting 50.4 percent from the field.
- Together, the three are a combined 208 of 393 from the field this season, good for 52.9 percent. The rest of the Greyhounds are a combined 38.6 percent from the field.
Perry's Last 12
- Deon Perry has increased his scoring output over the last 12 games – including seven games of 20 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 41.5 percent from 3-point range during the 12 games, averaging 3.3 made threes per game.
- Prior to the last 12 games, Perry was 22 of 76 from 3-point range (28.9 percent) in the season's first 11 games.
- The 12 games have boosted his scoring average by more than two points to 16.3. He is now second in the conference in points per game and seventh (3.1) in assists. Perry leads the conference in free-throw percentage (87.8 percent)
- Perry has raised his career mark to 13.4 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 815. 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 815 boards. Lafayette's Stefan Ciosci is 11th with 831.
Twenty Or More For Deon
- Deon Perry's 21-point effort against Holy Cross marked the 14th time in his 56 collegiate games that he has scored 20 or more. Since 2011-12, seven 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 58 of 123 from 3-point range in those 14 games, good for 47.2 percent. In his other 41 games at Loyola, Perry is 75 of 212 (33.4 percent) from behind the arc.
- Loyola is 9-6 all-time when Perry scores 20 or more points.
Stines Steps Up As Second Scorer
- D'Angelo Stines has been a solid second scorer for the Greyhounds this season behind Deon Perry, averaging 9.6 points though 23 games this year.
- Stines has scored 10 or more in 13 of the Greyhounds' 23 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 23 games, he is second the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .568 (71 of 125).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 56.1 after the Holy Cross 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 51.9 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 54.2 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 38 games this season, Aldama is averaging 10.5 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 returns to Reitz Arena on Saturday, February 10, for a 5 p.m. game against Colgate University.
