 "Photo: Jesse DeFlorio")
By Brian Hungarter Staff Writer
After two more wins last week the Loyola men's basketball team is peaking at the right time heading into the postseason. The Hounds (17-12, 11-5 MAAC) are on a three-game surge and winners of 10 of their last 12 to force a four-way tie atop the conference.
Last week, Loyola won possibly their most important game of the season to date by defeating Rider,73-68, Monday night in Reitz Arena. If they can take care of business against Canisius at home on Thursday night and Marist in the finale on the road, the Greyhounds could be looking at a top seed heading into the MAAC tournament.
Senior Michael Tuck led the Greyhounds on Monday with 20 points to go along with nine rebounds, but was closely followed by senior Gerald Brown's 16-point effort and 10 points each from sophomore Brett Harvey and junior Marquis Sullivan.
"This win tonight meant a lot for our school," head coach Jimmy Patsos said. "I am so proud of our program, our players, the fans, everyone was great tonight.
"But this is not the last step. It is not easy to get into third or fourth place from 1-27, but the hardest step is reaching first place, and we have a shot at that now in a week."
Directly out of the final media timeout, two Tuck free-throws knotted the score at 64, and Harvey hit 1 of 2 from the line to put the Greyhounds ahead 65-64 with 2:30 remaining. Rider's Matt Griffin responded with a three, but Brown got Mike Ringgold to foul out, and after two free throws the score stood at 67-67.
After Griffin missed his three-point attempt, freshman Brian Rudolph's notched his 10th assist by feeding Isreal, who put the Hounds ahead 69-67 with 1:11 remaining. Rudolph then went coast-to-coast as Loyola went up by four. Rider hit 1 of 2 from the line, and Tuck, who was fouled after a rebound, connected on two free throws to seal the win.
"Loyola had a lot more energy tonight in the second half," Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey said. "Their effort put energy back into the building, which I thought we had taken away with our play in the first half, but they fed off of the fans well. When their offense clicked, the crowd came to life and they played great. It's another hard fought loss (Rider's third in a row)."
The Hounds came out overly excited against Rider and struggled, forcing bad shots and not working the ball for an open look, resulting in a 41-29 Broncs lead at the break. This team proved their resiliency, however, as Loyola caught fire in the second half, outscoring Rider 44-27.
Rider rotated between a 2-3 zone and a 3-2 zone, and in conjunction with full-court pressure they thoroughly confused Loyola for a majority of the first half. The Hounds showed signs of life in the final four minutes, holding the Rider lead to 41-29. The momentum carried over to the second half after Patsos delivered a few choice words in the locker room. Loyola had numerous open looks and used an 8-2 run to cut the Rider lead to six at 43-37 by the 18-minute mark.
After trading points for about five minutes, the Hounds offense jumped into high gear, unleashing a 10-2 run over 2:15 and cutting the Rider lead to one at 51-50 with 12 minutes to play. Over the stretch, Sullivan connected on his first two threes of the game, and tough rebounding from senior Omari Isreal, Tuck and Brown prevented Rider from relying on their typical dominance in the paint.
After a Rider free-throw, Brown got loose on a fast break and connected on the transition layup, tying the score (52-52) for the first time since the opening tip with 10 minutes to play. There were six lead changes in five minutes leading up to the final media timeout of the game with Rider holding a 64-62 advantage. That's when Loyola's offense took over to deliver the victory.
Rider was in control for a majority of the first half as they continually outworked the Greyhounds inside en route to 16 points in the paint. They held their biggest lead of the half at 39-24 with 2:33 remaining on the back of 15 points from Mansell, 13 from Ryan Thompson and nine from Jason Thompson.
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Competing in their annual Bracketbuster contest Saturday afternoon in Reitz Arena, the Greyhounds edged out their final non-conference opponent UC Davis 67-64 on Senior Day.
Brown led the balanced Loyola scoring effort with 16 points, followed by Sullivan's 14, Tuck's 13, and Harvey's 12. Loyola also outrebounded UC Davis 40-23 and received 32 points off of the bench as compared to the Aggies' 15.
Featuring a couple changes to the lineup for Senior Day, Loyola went with seniors Hassan Fofana and Greg Manning to start, while Harvey and Isreal (out, illness) took a seat. Also seeing a more involved role was redshirt freshman Tony Lewis, whose minutes have been increasing over the past few weeks.
UC Davis maintained a lead for a majority of the first half, trading baskets with Loyola and holding their largest advantage at 26-17 with nine minutes to play in the half. The Aggies controlled the pace of the game with their Princeton-style motion offense and successfully prevented a Loyola scoring spurt on defense.
The Loyola offense found its groove when Sullivan connected twice from beyond the arc, spurring an11-2 Greyhound run to knot the game at 30 with four minutes to play in the opening half. UC Davis held a slight 38-37 lead at the half.
The second half opened similarly to the way the first half ended as the teams traded five field goals for the opening eight minutes, resulting in a 45-45 tie with 12 minutes to play.
After a UC Davis three-point play, the Hounds rallied off a 7-0 run on the back of five free-throws to hold a 52-48 lead with 9:30 to play. UC Davis tied it up at 52-52 with eight minutes left in the contest and went up by two with 3:37 left in regulation.
Out of the final media stoppage, Brown connected in the paint and Sullivan hit his fifth deep ball of the afternoon, resulting in a 63-60 Loyola lead at the 1:45 mark, and the Hounds held tight for a key defensive stop, while Harvey hit two free throws and sealed the game for Loyola.
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