Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 12/11/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Kat Kienle Loyola's offense finally found its way on Sunday against Manhattan after struggling for three straight games.

Media Credit: Kat Kienle Gerald Brown scored 22 points to lead Loyola by Manhattan on Sunday.

Omari Isreal was one of three Hounds to score in double figures on Sunday.

By Dave Lomonico
Sports Editor
&
By Kat Kienle
Assistant Sports Editor

After an embarrassing loss to Iona in their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener on Friday, a revived Loyola men's basketball squad reestablished themselves as conference threats with a 77-54 victory over Manhattan Sunday afternoon at Reitz Arena.

Sophomore guard Brett Harvey recorded a double-double with a career-high 11 assists and 10 rebounds, while the Greyhounds (5-5, 1-1 MAAC) shot 51.7 percent from the field to clinch the win and keep Loyola undefeated at home.

"It was a good game. As bad as we played Friday night, we played really hard today," head coach Jimmy Patsos said. "Our kids learned a valuable lesson today to never give up on yourself. It looks like the Loyola students have given up on us. That's too bad. We'll try harder."

In a game where they never came close to relinquishing the lead, the Greyhounds asserted themselves early, going on an unanswered 15-0 run by the 14:42 mark. The Jaspers, who were unable to slow down the tempo and shot just 25 percent from the field, soon found themselves at a 22-2 disadvantage just 8:30 into the game.

"I thought we had a little size advantage if we wanted to go inside and we did," Patsos said. "So we went inside, and I think that opens things up on the outside as well."

The Loyola defense continued to create opportunities around the net, snagging six steals in the first half and out-rebounding Manhattan 28-18 in the first 20 minutes. Harvey, meanwhile, continued to create opportunities around the net with six assists in the first half alone.

"Brett Harvey was as good tonight as he has been all his career," Patsos said. "He's earned every one of the 35 minutes that he played today."

Though some sloppy passing hindered the Hounds with the half coming to a close, Loyola entered intermission with a 42-23 lead after freshman guard Brian Rudolph fed senior center Hassan Fofana for an alley-oop dunk on the final possession.

After the break, the Greyhounds left no chance for the Jaspers to recover, going on an eight-point run to start, sparking a half where they shot 61.9 percent from the field. One of the highlights of the half came with 12:15 left when Rudolph sunk his first career three-pointer to give Loyola a 57-29 lead.

The Hounds out-shot and out-rebounded the Jaspers 44-18 and 44-30, respectively, and completely controlled every offensive category.

"Last year we were a pretty good road team," said senior guard Gerald Brown, who led the team with 22 points. "I think this game right here says that we just need to come out with that same intensity that we have at home on the road. We want to win the MAAC, and in order to win the MAAC you have to win games on the road."

Junior guard Marquis Sullivan scored 15 points and senior forward Omari Isreal added 13. Meanwhile, senior forward Michael Tuck contributed with 10 rebounds, eight defensive, to go along with eight points.

"You're never as good as you think you are and you're never as bad [either], and we're learning that," Patsos said. "We're a roller coaster, and that's where I'm disappointed. If we play like we did today, we'll win a lot of games. If we play like we did on Friday [against Iona], we'll lose a lot of games. I expect us to be somewhere in the middle."

Patsos and his troops could look at Friday night's 92-66 drubbing served up courtesy of the Gaels in two ways. First, the positive: The MAAC is a tough conference, wins on the road are hard to come by and Iona responded on their home floor.

After the game, Iona's Rashon Dwight, who was one of four Gaels to score in double figures by scoring a career-high 16 points, had compliments for Loyola.

"It's great we came out and defended our home court," Dwight told Iona Athletics. "The fans gave us the lift we needed against a very good and very well coached opponent."

The Hounds proved Dwight correct two days later against Manhattan.

That was the positive outlook on the Iona game. Another way to look at it is that this was Loyola's third straight loss. The team, supposedly one that can put up points in bunches, couldn't score 70 points for the third straight game, and the ball-hawking defense allowed the Gaels to run rampant with a 69 percent field goal percentage in the first half.

The list doesn't end there. Iona followed the lead of Drexel and Mount St Mary's, who both beat the Greyhounds last week, by slowing down Loyola's up-tempo style and forcing them to convert in the half court, where they have struggled to execute the flex offense. The Iona defense forced 12 first-half turnovers and held the Hounds to just seven first-half field goals.

Outside of Brown, the Hounds haven't found any consistent scoring weapons, which is the same problem the team faced last year. Brown had 31 points against Iona (12-of-14 from the charity stripe), but Sullivan, Tuck, Harvey and Isreal, the supposed compliments to Brown, combined for just 20 points. Sullivan went 2-for-10 from the field and 1-for-7 from three-point range for seven points, while Isreal had just five.

As a whole, Loyola shot 30.3 percent from the floor and were 7-for-22 from beyond the arc. Patsos noted earlier in the season that the team was settling for the three-point shot too often. Coming into the game, the team hoisted up 172 threes -- the most in the MAAC -- but made just 59 of them (34.3 percent).

The Iona game was never in doubt for the Gaels, who grabbed a 9-1 lead before Brown hit Loyola's first field goal almost five minutes into the contest. Iona used a 15-0 run to build a 29-7 advantage midway through the half before going up by 28 points on the heels of a three-point play by Dwight right before intermission. Dwight scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half by going 5-of-5 from the field, in addition to hitting both his free throws.

After taking a 49-24 lead at halftime, Iona stifled the Hounds for the first 5:15 of the second half, while building themselves a more-than-comfortable 35-point lead. At the 9:25 mark, the Gaels' Dexter Gray, who scored a team-high 18 points, hit a layup to give Iona their largest lead of the night, 69-33.

The Gaels actually cooled down on the shooting end in the second half, hitting a mere 48 percent from the field. But the Hounds somehow found a way to shoot even worse than their poor first half, hitting just 30 percent of their shots (10-of-33).

Milan Prodanovic had 16 points to match Dwight, while Devon Clarke added 15 points off the bench for the Gaels. John Kelly led with seven rebounds, and Kyle Camper had five assists to round out Iona's effort. Besides Brown's 31, Loyola's only other bright spot was Rudolph, who scored 11 points.

"Our guys played great," Iona head coach Kevin Willard said to Iona Athletics. "They executed well and played tremendous defense; it was a great all-around effort tonight."

A loss was not the way Loyola wanted to start off their MAAC schedule, but the Hounds did come back with a win against Manhattan two days later. But with a tough non-conference game against Dayton followed by a trip to Champagne, Ill., to play the Illini coming up, the Hounds will be challenged to keep their momentum.

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