BALTIMORE –
Braeden Speed drove the right side of the lane around a
Jacob Theodosiou screen, drew contact on his jump and finished with a right-handed layup with 32.4 seconds left in regulation on Tuesday night.
His subsequent free throw gave Loyola University Maryland men's basketball a two-point lead over Lehigh University, and the Greyhounds' held off a Mountain Hawks attempt in the final seconds to seal a 77-74 victory in the Patriot League Championships First Round.
The Greyhounds move on to face top-seeded Bucknell University on Thursday, March 6, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The quarterfinal game is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. in Sojka Pavillion.
Five Loyola players scored 11 or more points, led by
Milos Ilic's 17.
Jacob Theodosiou had 15, and
Braeden Speed and
Tyson Commander added 13 each.
Jordan Stiemke rounded out the group with 11. Ilic grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, and he matched his brother,
Veljko Ilic with four assists.
Loyola led by as many as 12 in the first half, and the Greyhounds were up five, 43-38, at halftime after shooting 65.4 percent from the field before the break. That field-goal percentage was their best in a half this season.
Lehigh took its first lead since it was 3-2 in the first two minutes on a Cam Gillus pull-up with 13:16 to play. The Mountain Hawks' 54-53 lead did not last long as
Milos Ilic scored in the paint 19 seconds later. Commander stretched the lead to 59-54 off a sideline out-of-bounds play that led to a layup at 10:37.
The Mountain Hawks gained two more leads over the next five-plus minutes, but both were erased on the Greyhounds' next possessions.
After Hank Alvey scored in the paint at 5:19, Theodosiou hit a three from the top-right of the arc 21 ticks of the clock later, and Loyola led 68-67.
Lehigh again took one-point leads three times through the remainder of the game. Nasir Whitlock, who came off the Mountain Hawks' bench to score a team-high 16, had the points on all three of the possessions to grab the lead.
The first time came with 2:12 left on the clock when he made 1 of 2 at the free-throw line, but
Milos Ilic would put Loyola back in front at 1:50. He was initially given continuation when he was fouled on a drive, but the referees gathered, and the call was overturned, sending him to the free-throw line for two where he made both.
Whitlock hit a floater in the lane at 1:29 that pushed Lehigh in front, 72-71, but Ilic was again fouled at 1:11. This time he made the first but missed the second, and Loyola was tied, 72-72.
Just under 30 seconds later, Commander grabbed what looked to be a loose ball, but he was called for a foul on Whitlock with 42 seconds left. Whitlock made the first and missed the second, and
Milos Ilic grabbed his ninth rebound of the game, setting up the final Loyola possession.
Speed brought the ball across midcourt and drove hard to the right side of the lane. Theodosiou met Whitlock with a hard screen just above the foul line, and Speed beat Gillus to the rim, making the shot and drawing the foul.
After his made free throw gave Loyola a 75-73 advantage, Lehigh called its last timeout with 32.4 on the clock. Tyler Whitney-Sidney had a 3-pointer go off the rim, but Gillus grabbed the rebound. He missed a contested shot inside the paint, and
David Brown III pulled down the loose ball for Loyola. He was fouled by Alvey, and Brown scored his only points of the game on two free throws with just over a second on the clock, sealing the win.
Milos Ilic scored 13 of his game-high 17 in the second half, while it was Commander and Speed who helped Loyola build its first-half lead.
Commander made threes on back-to-back possessions in the game's seventh minute, finishing the half with 11 points. Speed scored nine in the period with his final two coming in the final two seconds with a floater that round the net.
