Game Information
Opponent	Navy Midshipmen
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Saturday, January 11, 2025
Time	5:00 p.m.
Location	Baltimore, Md. | Reitz Arena
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Online Media	ESPN+ | Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball returns to Reitz Arena for a two-game homestand starting on Saturday, January 11, with a 5 p.m. game against Navy.
• Loyola has three players averaging 11.5 points per game or more through the season's first 13 games and five at 6.4 or higher.
• Milos Ilic is one of only 15 players nationally (who qualify for the national rankings) and average 14 or more points and nine or more rebounds per game this season. Ilic enters the fourth conference game with marks of 14.6 and 9.0.
• Loyola is second in the League in rebounding margin at +2.7 per game. Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds with 9.0 rebounds per game and then four other players – Jordan Stiemke, Veljko Ilic, Jacob Theodosiou an Braeden Speed – average 3.1 or more 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.
• 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 returned to the roster this season.

Watch The Action

• The Loyola-Navy game will stream live on ESPN+.

Busy Start To League Play

• Loyola will play its first five Patriot League games over a stretch of just 12 days spanning from January 2-13.
• The Greyhounds are one of two teams in the conference to have as many games in as few days. Loyola and American's first meeting of the year will take place on Monday, January 13, as the League's first CBS Sports Network game of the year.

Series History Versus Navy

• Loyola and Navy will meet for the 49th time in series history, and the 25th time since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2013-14, when the teams take the floor on Saturday.
• Navy holds a 36-12 lead in the all-time series after winning two of three meetings a year ago, including a 64-48 decision on March 5, 2024, in the Patriot League Championships First Round.
• Loyola earned a 74-70 decision in Annapolis, Maryland, on January 27, but the Midshipmen then came onto the Greyhounds' home floor and scored a 69-62 victory on February 21.
• The teams first met during the 1910-11 season making Navy the first-ever current Patriot League team that Loyola faced.

About The Midshipmen

• Navy enters Saturday evening's game with a 5-11 record and a 2-1 mark in Patriot League play. The Midshipmen were 3-3 overall after a November 29 win over Penn, but they did not win another game for more than a month before dropping six-straight prior to the start of Patriot League games. Since then, Navy won matchups against American and Lafayette before a 70-59 loss at Holy Cross on Wednesday night.

Last Time Out

• Loyola nearly overcame a 17-point halftime deficit on Wednesday night at Army West Point, but a shot at the buzzer to tie the game came up just short, and the Black Knights held on for a 74-72 Patriot League win at Christl Arena.
• Braeden Speed shot-faked from three and then hit a jumper with his toe on the line to make it a two-point Loyola deficit with 9.0 seconds to play.
• After a Greyhounds' timeout, Army West Point inbounded the ball, and Loyola fouled Jorn Everson. He missed the front-end of one-and-one, and Milos Ilic grabbed the rebound with 7.2 seconds on the clock.
• Speed got to the right corner, but his 18-foot jumper was just short, and Army West Point took the win on its home court.
• Loyola shot 48 percent from the field in the first half, but the Greyhounds yielded 60.6 percent to the Black Knights who took a 47-30 lead at the break.
• Army West Point extended its lead to 18 twice in the first six minutes of the second half, the second time coming on a Josh Scovens layup to make it 59-41 with 14:11 remaining in regulation, but from that point forward, Loyola outscored the Black Knights, 31-15.
• Jalen Rucker scored 10 of Army West Point's 15 points over the last 14 minutes as part of his game-high 26.
• AJ Allenspach made a step-back in the paint with 2:21 remaining to make it a 74-64 Black Knights' lead, but the points were the last Army West Point would score in the game.
• Jordan Stiemke hit a three 12 seconds later to get Loyola within seven, and two Jacob Theodosiou free throws made it a five-point game at 1:26. Speed went one of two at the line with 43 ticks on the clock, and then Loyola forced two empty possessions by Army West Point.
• Speed made his long jumper with 10 seconds left to get Loyola to its closest point, but the Greyhounds could not tie or take the lead.
• Four Loyola players scored in double figures, led by Stiemke's 17. Tyson Commander scored a season0-high 16 points, and Theodosiou added 11. Ilic logged his sixth double-double this year, going 6 of 8 from the field for 12 points while grabbing 10 boards. Speed finished with nine points.

Tightly Wound

• Loyola has played three Patriot League games this year, going 1-2 with road losses at Holy Cross and Army West Point and a home win against Lehigh. Those three games have been decided by a cumulative margin of two points. 
• The Greyhounds' January 5 win over the Mountain Hawks came by six points, and they have then lost two two-point decisions by matching 74-72 scores on the road.

Home Court Holds

• Through three rounds of Patriot League games, the home team has won all 15 games that have been played.

Tempo & Efficiency

• After three conference games, Loyola ranks first in the Patriot League in offensive efficiency per Ken Pom with a 110.3 rating. It is second in tempo, averaging 67.7 possessions per game.

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 14.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
• Ilic's 14.6 points per game are almost double his previous season-high after he put up 7.6 points per game last year. 
• Per Ken Pom, Ilic is taking 27.4 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. His Ken Pom usage rate is 29.3 percent this year, a rate that ranks in the top-75 nationally.
• Ilic ranks 17th in NCAA Division I in points per game for players listed as 6-foot-10 or taller.

Shooting On Point

• Milos Ilic's rise to the top of the Greyhounds' production has been fueled by many things, with a significant improvement in shooting percentage the majority of the reason.
• This year, Ilic has shot 52.9 percent from the field, up from 48.1 in 2023-24 and 40.1 as a freshman in 2021-22.
• That percentage is in large part to the fact he has played more than 90 percent of his minutes at the five position for the Greyhounds this year after spending almost all of his time on the court as a four in his first two seasons.
• As a result, Ilic has taken 87.1 percent of his shots this year as two-pointers, and he has made those at a clip of 57.0 percent (77 of 135) through 14 games, a three-percent improvement over his first two seasons.
• He has also attempted only 20 shots from 3-point range this year (12.9 percent of his shots attempted). As a freshman in 2021-22, he took 71 3-pointers before his season-ending injury which comprised 51.8 percent of his 137 attempts. Last year, he took threes 23.4 percent of the time in 183 shots.

Pounding The Boards

• Milos Ilic is tied for first in the Patriot League in rebounding through games of January 6 with 9.0 per game. His rebounding average is also 27th in NCAA Division I, and he ranks in the top 70 nationally in both offensive (52nd, 3.07) and defensive (57th, 5.93) rebounds.

On The Defensive

• Loyola's perimeter defense has helped it rank second in the Patriot League – and No. 106 in Division I – through games of January 6 in 3-point field goal defense. Opponents are shooting just 31.2 percent from behind the arc against the Greyhounds this year.
• It's a significant turnaround for Loyola from a year ago when it ranked 310th out of 351 Division I teams as teams shot 35.8 percent from 3-point range against the Greyhounds.
• One of the notable non-conference defensive performances the Greyhounds had was at DePaul. The Blue Demons entered the game ranked 14th in the nation in 3-point percentage at better than 41 percent, but Loyola held them to 20.8 percent (5 of 24).

Bouncing Back Nicely

• Jordan Stiemke had his lowest scoring output of the 2024-25 season to start December when he saw just 14 minutes of action, went 1 of 5 from the field and scored two points at Coppin State.
• Stiemke responded by tying his to-date season-high in scoring with 15 points five days later at Delaware State before scoring a game-best 22 at Mount St. Mary's on December 14. He then scored 12 on December 21 against Hampton and had 10 at DePaul. 
• He had his second-highest scoring output of the year with 19 in the Patriot League opener at Holy Cross, and he set a to-date career-high with 25 against Lehigh. Stiemke has averaged 17.1 points over Loyola's last seven games.

Bench Scorer

• Jordan Stiemke has been the top scorer off the bench in the Patriot League this season, averaging 13.6 points per game through 14 Loyola contests to lead conference players who have started six or fewer games.
• Nationally, he is ranked 11th in points per game among NCAA Division I players who have played in 10 or more games and have five or fewer starts per stathead.com.
• The native of Bel Air, Maryland, was Loyola's second-leading scorer in the last 10 games of his freshman season (2023-24), averaging 10.3 points. Prior to that, he had scored just 34 points in 15 games.
• Spanning the last two seasons, Stiemke is averaging 12.3 points over the Greyhounds' last 23 games.

Contributions In Many Areas

• Jacob Theodosiou is second on the team in minutes played (28.1) through 14 games as one of only three players on the roster averaging more than 27 minutes.
• 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. He had another 20-plus point game at DePaul when he made 9 of 10 shots to score 22.
• He is third on the team in scoring (11.9), first in steals (1.4) and fourth in rebounds (3.9).
• Theodosiou has also been the Greyhounds' best free-throw shooter this year. He has gone to the line a team-leading 66 times and made 50 for an 83.3 percentage from the charity stripe. His 66 free throws attempted are fourth in the Patriot League.

Turnaround On The Line

• Loyola is second in the Patriot League and No. 102 in the nation as of January 6 with a 74.1 percent mark from the free-throw line. This year's percentage is almost  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.

Fast Start For Speed

• Braeden Speed has been one of the Patriot League's top freshmen through non-conference play, ranking fourth in points per game (8.7), second in assists (2.9), and third in minutes per game (28.4).
• Speed has shot 45.8 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line while ranking fourth on the team with an 8.7 points per game average. He leads the team in minutes played and has scored 10 or more in six of his 14 collegiate games.

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 200 NBA games through January 6 and is averaging 13.3 points and 7.4 rebounds through 30 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 and later 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.