Game Information
Opponent	Bucknell Bison | Patriot League Championships Quarterfinals
Game Notes	Loyola
Date	Thurdsay, March 16, 2025
Time	7:00 p.m.
Location	Lewisburg, Pa. | Sojka Pavilion
Tickets	Purchase
Directions	Click Here
Online Media	ESPN+ | Live Stats

Quick Hits About The Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's basketball travels to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, for a Patriot League Championships Quarterfinals game against Bucknell University.
• The Greyhounds and Bison will tipoff at 7 p.m. in Sojka Pavilion in a game that will stream live on ESPN+.
• The winner of the game will play the winner the Navy-Boston University quarterfinal on Sunday, March 9. If Loyola wins, the Greyhounds will be on the road.
• Milos Ilic is one of 47 players nationally (who qualify for the national rankings) and average 14.0 or more points and 7.5 or more rebounds per game this season. Ilic enters the postseason with marks of 14.4 and 7.5.
• Jacob Theodosiou leads the Patriot League in steals per game at 1.8 and total steals with 53.
• Loyola is third in the League in rebounding margin at +0.2 per game. Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds with 7.4 rebounds per game and four other players – Jordan Stiemke, Veljko Ilic, Braeden Speed and Jacob Theodosiou – average 3.3 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.

Watch The Action

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

Patriot League Championships History

• Loyola is making its 12th appearance in the Patriot League Championships since joining the conference in 2013-14. The Greyhounds are 6-11 in the Championships overall, 6-6 in first-round games, 1-4 in the quarterfinals, 1-0 in the semifinals and 0-1 in the championship game.
• Loyola is 2-9 in Patriot League Championships games played on the road. The Greyhounds and Bison have met once in the postseason when Bucknell won an 83-78 quarterfinal game in Lewisburg during the 2018 Championships.
• Last year, the Greyhounds lost in the first round of the tournament at Navy.

Progress Being Made

• Loyola picked up its seventh win of the season in its 15th game, matching the Greyhounds' win total from the 2023-24 season (32 total games). Loyola then eclipsed last year's total in its 17th game this season. Through 30 games, the Greyhounds have made a five-win improvement since last year.
• In Josh Loeffler's first year as Loyola's head coach, the Greyhounds have seen improvements in just about every statistical category from last season, notably: field-goal percentage (.436 from .417), scoring offense (69.1, 64.0) and scoring margin (-1.9, -7.9).

Magic Numbers

• Scoring defense has been a staple of the Greyhounds 12 wins this season, games in which they have yielded just 63.0 points per game compared to a 29-game average of 71.0.
• Loyola has gone 9-2 in games when it has held its opponents to 69 or fewer points with the outliers being Army West Point's 64-60 win on February 12 and Boston University's win on February 19.
• Its two wins that came with the opponents scoring 70 points or more were a 75-74 win in January over Navy and a 77-73 Patriot League Championships First Round victory against Lehigh.

Tops In Swipes

• Loyola leads the Patriot League in steals per game (7.23) and Jacob Theodosiou is tied for first individually (1.8).
• Theodosiou has averaged 2.0 steals per game in conference contests after averaging 1.36 in non-conference outings.
• He leads the Patriot League in games with two or more steals with 17 this season, per stathead.com. 
• If he maintains his conference lead through the end of the season, Theodosiou will be the fourth Loyola player to lead the confernece in steals per game, joining R.J. Williams (2.2, 2013-14), Andrew Kostecka (2.6, 2018-19) and Cam Spencer (2021-22, 2.3).

Playing Them Close

• Nine of the Greyhounds' 19 games against  Patriot League foes this season were decided by six or fewer points, and Loyola is 4-6 in those outings.

Fourth In Field-Goal Percentage

• Veljko Ilic's 54.0 percent from the field this year has helped solidify his status as one of the top players in school history in field-goal percentage. He ranks fourth all-time at the school with a 54.7 percent mark.

Stiemke Of Swats

• Jordan Stiemke had a modest eight blocked shots through the season's first 16 games, but he's been one of the Patriot League's top shot blockers since then.
• Over the last 14 games, Stiemke has 22 blocked shots. He has seven games with multiple blocks during the stretch and has moved into third place during conference play with 1.3 blocks per game.
• Stiemke is fifth in the League with 1.0 overall this season (30 in 30 games).
• The Maryland native is tied for 10th in NCAA Division I in total blocks (28) by players 6-foot-5 or shorter. He tops the Patriot League with that filter.

Series History Versus Bucknell

• Loyola and Bucknell will meet Thursday for the 32nd time in series history and the 24th time since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League for the 2023-14 season.
• The Bison hold a 24-7 all-time lead in the series and are 1-0 against the Greyhounds in Patriot League Championships action.
• Bucknell won the first meeting of the 2024-2025 season, 79-67, on January 29, in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Greyhounds were within three with 11:55 left in regulation, but the Bison scored the next 11 points.
• When the teams met last week in Baltimore, Loyola opened the February 26 game with a 24-9 lead just 8:36 into the contest, but the Bison were within three, 40-37, at halftime. The second half featured seven lead changes and five tie scores with neither team leading by more than four points.
• Jacob Theodosiou's basket with 1:38 left in regulation made it a 68-67 Bucknell lead, but Achile Spadone made two free throws with 18 ticks left, and the Bison fended off a pair of Loyola 3-point attempts in the final seconds for a 70-67 win.
• Loyola and the Bison played first in January 1987, meeting four times between then and 1993. The programs played a four-game series between 2009-2012 with the road team winning each of the four games.

Last Time Out

• 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 a two-point lead over Lehigh, 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.
• 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.
• The lead changed hands 10 times in ten times in the second half, but the Mountain Hawks never led by more than two.

Theodosiou Has Turned It Up

• Jacob Theodosiou finished Loyola's 11-game non-conference schedule with 128 points, an average of 11.6 per game, but his scoring average is now more than a point higher (12.9) thanks to averaging 13.6 per game in Patriot League contests.
• He shot 3-pointers at a better clip in conference games, .351 to 318, and his non-scoring numbers rose, too. Theodosiou averaged 4.8 rebounds per game in Patriot League games (3.1 non-conference), and he has a 1.24 assist-to-turnover ration in League games compared to a 0.73 mark out of conference.

Scoring Twins

• Milos and Veljko Ilic are one of 10 sets of twins playing for the same team in NCAA Division I Men's Basketball this year, and they rank third among twins in scoring. They lead the country's twins in rebounding with a combined 12.4 per game.
• Elon's TJ and TK Simpkins lead the group with a combined 30.6 points per game, while Utah's Gabe and Mason Madsen have combined for 22.8.
• The Ilic brothers are averaging a combined 22.4 points per game. 

Focal Point

• Milos Ilic has become the focal point of the Greyhounds' offense this year, and the 6-foot-10 post from Gornji Milanovic, Serbia has responded with his best start to a season in four years at Loyola. Ilic has led the Greyhounds with 14.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
• Ilic's 14.4 points per game are more than six higher than his previous season-high after he put up 7.6 points per game last year. 
• Per Ken Pom, Ilic is taking 29.0 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 30.0 percent this year, a rate that ranks in the top-55 nationally. In Patriot League games, he is fourth in the conference in percentage of shots taken when he's on the floor (30.3), and he is third in usage rate (30.7).

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 53.2 percent from the field, up from 48.1 in 2023-24 and 40.1 in 2021-22.
• That percentage is in large part to the fact he has played more than 85 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 82.6 percent of his shots this year as two-pointers, and he has made those at a clip of 57.1 percent (157 of 275) through 30 games, a 3-percent rise over his first two seasons.
• He has attempted only 58 shots from 3-point range this year (17.4 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 on 183 shots.
• Ilic took threes at a slightly higher rate during Patriot League contests, averaging 2.25 per game compared to 1.5 out of conference. He made 40 percent of his shots (16 of 40) from behind the arc in the 18 League games.

Dishing, Too

• In addition to leading the team in scoring and rebounding, Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds in assists with 89, an average of 3.0 per game. He is the only Patriot League player to lead his team in all three categories.
• He is tied for ninth in the nation in assists per game for players 6-foot-10 or taller (per stathead.com), and he is one of three players nationally of that height category to lead his team in rebounds, assists and points per game, joining College of Charleston's Ante Brzovic and Davidson's Reed Bailey.

Veljko In Victories

• Veljko Ilic has been key in Loyola's wins this year, and his statistics reflect it. The senior post player has averaged 9.9 points in the 11 wins he has played in – he missed the VMI game with an injury – a more than five-point increase over the 6.7 he's averaged in 18 losses.
• Ilic has shot 64.7 percent from the field in the wins (44 of 68). He ranks sixth in the Patriot League at 54.0 percent.

Bench Scorer

• Jordan Stiemke has been the top scorer off the bench in the Patriot League this season, averaging 12.0 points per game through 30 Loyola contests to lead conference players who have started 10 or fewer games.
• Nationally, he is ranked 14th in points per game among NCAA Division I players who have played in 25 or more games and have 10 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 11.9 points over the Greyhounds' last 40 games.

Contributions In Many Areas

• Jacob Theodosiou leads the team in minutes (30.8) through 30 games as a first-year player on the Greyhounds' roster.
• The native of Waterloo, Ontario, put up a new high of 27 points in a one-point win at home over Navy, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range and 7 of 8 at the free-throw line. His 22-point game at Bucknell marked his fourth with 20 or more this year, and he set a new career-best with 32 on February 8 at Colgate.
• He is second on the team in scoring (12.9), first in steals (1.8) and third in rebounds (3.9) and assists (2.6). Theodosiou is first in the conference in steals per game and 11th in points.
• Theodosiou opened his Loyola career with 14 points against Columbia, but then he was averaging just 8.2 through six games.
• Since then, he is second on the team with 13.2 points (316 total) in the last 24 games dating to his 23-point effort on December 2 against Coppin State. 

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. He has played in 220 NBA games through February 24 and is averaging 12.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in 50 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 for the Grizzlies
• 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 19 games this year for Golden State.
• 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.