Quick Hits About The Hounds
- The 2024 Patriot League Championships open on Tuesday, March 5, for Loyola University Maryland when the Greyhounds travel to Annapolis, Maryland, for a 7 p.m. game at the U.S. Naval Academy.
- Jordan Stiemke has started the last nine games for the Greyhounds, and the freshman has risen to the challenge. He has raised his season points per game mark from 2.0 on January 31 to its current mark of 5.5, scoring 10-plus in five of the games.
- Golden Dike is second in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage this season, shooting 55.3 percent from the field (99 of 179) through 31 games.
- Dike is also second in the conference in rebounds per game (6.7).
- Deon Perry tops the Greyhounds with a 17.2 points per game average, a mark that leads the Patriot League this year. His 20.8 points per game in conference play led the league during the regular-season.
- Perry has now played in 33 Patriot League regular-season games and is averaging 16.9 points in those contests (557 total).
- Perry is averaging 22.3 points per game in his last 10 outings, scoring 21 or more points in seven of those games.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Navy game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus Navy
- Loyola and Navy will meet for the 38th time in series history on Saturday and the 25th time since Loyola joined the Patriot League for the 2013-14 season.
- The Midshipmen hold a 35-12 all-time lead in the series after the teams split the regular-season games in 2023-24. Loyola took a 74-70 decision on January 27 in Annapolis, Maryland, and the Midshipmen won, 69-62, on February 21 in Baltimore
- Deon Perry scored 30 points in the first game, and Garrett Brennan added a career-high 15 points in his first collegiate start. Loyola outrebounded the Midshipmen, 41-25, as Alonso Faure had nine, Milos Ilic finished with eight and Perry grabbed a career-high seven.
- In the meeting at Loyola, Navy held a 43-31 halftime lead that the Greyhounds cut to two with 18 seconds left on a Faure three, but the Midshipmen made five free throws after that point to secure the win.
- Faure had a team-high 15 points, while Perry added 11. Loyola outrebounded the Midshipmen, 44-39, with Ilic (11) and Brennan (10) both posting double-digit efforts.
- Tuesday night will mark the second time the programs have met in the Patriot League Championships. Loyola earned a 76-68 win in Annapolis in the quarterfinal-round on March 6, 2021.
Patriot League Championships History
- Loyola is making its 10th appearance in the Patriot League Championships since joining the conference in 2013-14. The Greyhounds are 5-10 in the Championships overall, 3-5 in first-round games, 1-4 in the quarterfinals and 1-0 in the semifinals and 0-1 in the championship game.
Last Time Out
- Army West Point led by five points with 17 seconds left in regulation on Saturday night, but Loyola staged an improbable rally for a 69-68 Patriot League victory after Golden Dike made a layup with 2.5 ticks of the clock left in Reitz Arena.
- Isaiah Caldwell made two free throws with 17 seconds left to give the Black Knights a 67-62 lead, but Jordan Stiemke hit his fifth 3-pointer of the night to get Loyola within a pair with 11 second on the clock.
- Loyola fouled Jaden Ellis on Army West Point's inbound play, but he missed the front end of two shots with eight ticks to go. Ellis converted the second shot, and the Black Knights fouled Tyson Commander at half court with 5.1 showing.
- After the second free throw, Josh Scovens inbounded for Army West Point, but his baseball pass past halfcourt was intercepted by Alonso Faure.
- Faure threw back to Dike in the paint, he spun on Scovens and put in a right-handed layup to give Loyola a 69-68 lead. Dike drew the foul and missed the free throw. Charlie Peterson grabbed the defensive rebound and threw a full-court shot that went just right, sealing the win for Loyola.
- Stiemke finished with 17 points, and Commander scored 14 points – his most this calendar year. Faure finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, and Dike had seven points, eight rebounds and four assists. Garrett Brennan scored eight and had a game-high five rebounds.
Stiemke Spark
- Jordan Stiemke drew his first starting assignment for Loyola on February 3 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 freshman from Bel Air, Maryland, has been Loyola's second-leading scorer since moving into the starting rotation, averaging 11.2 points in the nine games. Prior to that, he had scored just 34 points in 15 games.
- As a starter, he is shooting 44.3 percent from the field, 48.8 from 3-point range and 80.0 at the free-throw line. His biggest statistical improvement came in 3-point shooting where he was just 3 of 12 (.250) in his first 15 before going 21 of 43 in the last nine.
Perry Pushes Past 30
- Deon Perry, who was named to the All-Patriot League Second Team this week, had set a career-high of 30 points in a pair of road games this year, scoring that total at Army West Point, but he moved his best higher on February 17 at Lehigh when he scored 33.
- Perry became the first player in the Patriot League this year and the 33rd in NCAA Division I to have three games with 30 points or more in a game. Perry's games with 30 or more points are three of the 11 Loyola men's basketball players have posted in Patriot League contests since joining the conference in 2013-14.
- Perry is the third Loyola player to post 30 or more points three times in a season in the last decade, joining Andrew Kostecka (4 each in 2018-19 and 2019-20) and Santi Aldama (2020-21).
Conference Boards
- Loyola was the best rebounding team, statistically speaking, in the Patriot League during conference play, posting a plus-3.6 rebounding margin that is more than a full rebound higher than Colgate second place plus-2.5.
- Three Loyola players – Golden Dike (6.1), Alonso Faure (6.1) and Milos Ilic (5.1) – are averaging more than five rebounds per game in League play.
- The Greyhounds have outrebounded their opponents in 13 of 18 Patriot League contests to date.
A Golden Career High
- Golden Dike logged a career-high 21 points on Valentine's Night at Lafayette, eclipsing his previous best of 18 which had stood for the previous 132 games he'd played.
- Dike scored 18 points on February 17, 2019, against Fairfield in his fourth career game, but he had not gotten past that mark since.
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 27 of 29 games averaging 26.2 minutes, 7.9 points and 5.0 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 Loyola's last three games, Ilic is 14 of 25 (.560) from the field to average 10.7 points in outings against Boston University, Bucknell and Army West Point.
Perry's Last 17
- Deon Perry increased his scoring output over the last 17 games he's played – including 10 games of 20 or more and three games with 30-plus – to average of 20.5 over the stretch.
- The 2022-23 Patriot League All-Rookie guard has shot 37.6 percent from 3-point range during the 17 games, averaging 3.1 made threes per game.
- Prior to the last 17 games, Perry was 22 of 76 from 3-point range (28.9 percent) in the season's first 11 games.
- The 17 games have boosted his scoring average by almost four points to 17.4, and he now leads the Patriot League in scoring and free-throw percentage (91.0 percent)
- Perry has raised his career mark to 14.0 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.
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. At Lafayette on Valentine's Day, he grabbed 13 boards and moved past . Mark Rohde (1972-76) into fourth in school history with 868. Cam Gregory (2014-18) is third at Loyola with 871 rebounds.
- Dike has also risen the Patriot League's all-time charts and checks in ninth all-time with his 868 boards. Gregory's 871 are eighth.
Twenty Or More For Deon
- Deon Perry's 33-point effort at Lehigh marked the 17th time in his 61 collegiate games that he has scored 20 or more. Three-pointers have been the spark to Perry's 20-point games. He has shot 67 of 152 from 3-point range in those 16 games, good for 44.1 percent. In his other 41 games at Loyola, Perry is 80 of 230 (34.9 percent) from behind the arc.
- Loyola is 11-5 all-time when Perry scores 20 or more points.
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 31 games, he is second in the Patriot League in shooting percentage at .553 (99 of 179).
- He entered the season ranked second in school history in field-goal percentage at 55.9 percent, a mark is now at 55.8 after the regular-season.
- His four games with 14 or more points, through 28 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 7.5 points per game.
- The native of Alicante, Spain, shot a team-best 58.1 percent from the field last year. He has a career field-goal percentage of 53.0 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 49 games this season, Aldama is averaging 10.4 points and 5.6 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
- The winner of the Loyola-Navy game will head to Boston University on Thursday, March 7, to face the second-seeded Terriers in the Patriot League Quarterfinals.
