Quick Hits About The Hounds
- The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball team goes on the road for the second time during Patriot League play for a Wednesday, January 8, game at 6 p.m. against Army West Point.
- Loyola has three players averaging 12.0 points per game or more through the season's first 13 games and five at 6.7 or higher.
- Milos Ilic is one of only 19 players nationally (who qualify for the national rankings) and average 14 or more points and 8.5 or more rebounds per game this season. Ilic enters the third conference game with marks of 14.8 and 8.9.
- Loyola is second in the League in rebounding margin at +2.2 per game. Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds with 8.9 rebounds per game and then four other players – Jordan Stiemke, Veljko Ilic, Jacob Theodosiou an Braeden Speed – average 3.2 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-Army West Point 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 Army West Point
- Loyola and Army West Point will meet for the 24th time in series history and 23rd time since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League starting in 2013-14.
- The Greyhounds swept the regular-season series a year ago and gained a 12-11 advantage in the all-time win-loss column.
- Loyola shot 60 percent from the field after halftime on January 10, and it made 52.2 percent of shots overall in the game, en route to a 71-65 win at Army West Point.
- When the teams met on March 2 in Baltimore, Alonso Faure picked off a Josh Scovens inbound pass at midcourt, threw down to Golden Dike in the post, and he scored with 2.5 seconds on the clock to give the Greyhounds a 69-68 win. Jordan Stiemke had 17 points in the victory, and Tyson Commander added 14.
About The Black Knights
- Army West Point comes into its game against the Greyhounds with a 6-8 record and 0-2 mark in Patriot League games after losses at Colgate and Boston University in conference play.
- The Black Knights are the top-scoring team in the Patriot League this year with a 77.4 points per game average, but they are also yielding a conference-high 76.6.
- Jalen Rucker leads the Patriot League with an 18.0 points per game average, while Josh Scovens is averaging 16.4. A.J. Allenspach has scored 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds per game this year.
Last Time Out
- Jordan Stiemke scored 10 of his career-high 25 points during a 14-0 Loyola run in the first half that helped push the Greyhounds to an 80-74 win in their Patriot League home opener against Lehigh on Sunday afternoon.
- Stiemke made 9 of 14 shots overall and was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to eclipse his previous high of 23 from a February 2024 game at Boston University. He also grabbed seven rebounds, matching Jacob Theodosiou for team-high honors, to tie his season-best.
- Lehigh led 11-6 6:24 into the game after a Tommy Conniff basket in the paint, but two Stiemke free throws 28 ticks of the clock later sparked the run.
- He would knock down his lone 3-pointer of the game at 11:47, had a traditional 3-point play with a basket and free throw on the Greyhounds' next possession, and he then scored in the paint at 10:32 to make it 18-11 in favor of Loyola.
- Milos Ilic grabbed an offensive rebound and scored just over a minute later, and Loyola led, 20-11.
- Lehigh, however, would come back to tie the game four minutes later and lead late in the first half before two Braeden Speed baskets in the paint in the final minute of the stanza gave Loyola a 37-34 lead at the break.
- The Mountain Hawks scored the second half's first four points and a Tyler Whitney-Sidney layup gave them a 38-37 lead 43 seconds into the period.
- Ilic, however, would score in the paint 22 seconds later, and Loyola would be in front for the remainder of the game. The Greyhounds' lead swelled to nine on two occasions in the second half, but Lehigh pulled within a point, 59-58, on a Hank Alvey putback with 6:20 left in regulation.
- Ilic would score twice, wrapped around two Stiemke free throws, and Loyola led by seven with 4:35 on the clock. The margin again got to nine under two minutes; Lehigh would chip away, but Loyola responded with made free throws to hold off any comeback.
- Theodosiou went 12 of 14 from the line and was 9 of 10 in the final two minutes from the charity stripe. Overall, Loyola converted 13 of 14 free throws in that time frame with Speed and Ilic both cashing in twice.
- Speed finished with eight points, and Veljko Ilic came off the bench to score nine and grab six rebounds. Milos Ilic and Troy Cicero Jr. tied for team-high honors with three assists each.
Top Of The Scoring Order
- Loyola and Army West Point are the only two teams in the Patriot League this season with three players who average 12.0 or more points per game this season.
- For the Greyhounds, Milos Ilic leads at 14.8, while Jordan Stiemke and Jacob Theodosiou are averaging 13.3 and 12.0, respectively. Jalen Rucker leads Army West Point, and tops the League with 18.0 points, while Josh Scovens and Ryan Curry average 16.4 and 12.9 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 14.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
- Ilic's 14.8 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 27.9 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 29.8 percent this year, a rate that ranks in the top-70 nationally.
- Ilic ranks 18th 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 51.7 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 86.4 percent of his shots this year as two-pointers, and he has made those at a clip of 55.9 percent (71 of 127) through 13 games, a three-percent improvement over his first two seasons.
- He has also attempted only 20 shots from 3-point range this year (13.6 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 second in the Patriot League in rebounding through games of January 6 with 8.9 per game. His rebounding average is also 33rd in NCAA Division I, and he ranks in the top 75 nationally in both offensive (41st, 3.15) and defensive (72nd, 5.77) rebounds.
On The Defensive
- Loyola's perimeter defense has helped it lead the Patriot League – and rank No. 92 in Division I – through games of January 6 in 3-point field goal defense. Opponents are shooting just 30.5 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 17.2 points over Loyola's last six games.
Bench Scorer
- Jordan Stiemke has been the top scorer off the bench in the Patriot League this season, averaging 13.3 points per game through 13 Loyola contests to lead conference players who have started five or fewer games.
- Nationally, he is ranked 12th 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 12.1 points over the Greyhounds' last 22 games.
Contributions In Many Areas
- Jacob Theodosiou is second on the team in minutes played (28.0) through 13 games as one of only three players on the roster averaging more than 26 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. 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 (12.0), first in steals (1.5) and fourth in rebounds (3.7).
- Theodosiou has also been the Greyhounds' best free-throw shooter this year. He has gone to the line a team-leading 60 times and made 50 for an 83.3 percentage from the charity stripe.
Turnaround On The Line
- Loyola is second in the Patriot League and No. 75 in the nation as of January 6 with a 75.2 percent mark from the free-throw line. This year's percentage is more than 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 (28.1).
- Speed has shot 45.8 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the free-throw line while ranking fourth on the team with an 8.8 points per game average. He leads the team in minutes played and has scored 10 or more in six of his 113 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.
Up Next
- Loyola hosts Navy at 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 11, in Reitz Arena.
