| Opponent | Manhattan Jaspers |
| Date | Friday, January 25, 2013 |
| Time | 7:00 p.m. |
| Location | Riverdale, N.Y. | Draddy Gymnasium |
| TV | Radio | ESPNU |
| Series Record | Manhattan leads, 31-22 |
| Last Meeting | Loyola 62, Manhattan 60 – Feb. 26, 2012 in Riverdale, N.Y. |
Game Data
Loyola University Maryland makes its second trip this week up the New Jersey Turnpike for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference road game.
The Greyhounds will face Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., on Friday, January 25, at 7 o’clock.
On The Tube
Friday night’s game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU with Doug Sherman calling the play-by-play and Tim McCormick handling the color analysis.
The game is the second of three Loyola is slated to play on ESPNU during the regular-season.
The game will also be available on WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app on many mobile devices.
Series History
Loyola and Manhattan will meet for the 54th time when the teams take the floor Thursday. The Jaspers hold a 31-22 advantage in the all-time series.
The Greyhounds swept the regular-season series with Manhattan last year, but the two wins came by just a combined three points.
Loyola squeezed out a 61-60 victory in the first meeting between the teams on Thursday, January 5. Manhattan took a two-point lead with under a minute to play on a go-ahead jumper by Michael Alvarado with 58 ticks on the clock and a George Beamon free throw shortly thereafter. Loyola’s Shane Walker inbounded the ball from the baseline, right-to-left, to Cormier who drained a three from the corner to put the Greyhounds ahead with 3.1 seconds left.
The Greyhounds then rallied from a second-half deficit to win, 62-60, in Riverdale on February 26, in the regular-season finale.
Loyola has won nine of the last 11 meetings between the schools dating back to the 2007-2008 season.
Last Time Out
Dylon Cormier and Erik Etherly both scored their 1,000th career points on Monday night in Bridgeport, Conn., as the Greyhounds took the lead on Cormier’s bucket just before the halftime buzzer en route to a 65-60 win over Fairfield.
The Stags took a one-point lead on two Marcus Gilbert free throws with 35 seconds left in the first half, but Cormier made a runner just before the buzzer to put Loyola in front, 33-32, at the half. He then had a steal off Fairfield’s inbound pass to start the second half, and Etherly converted with a dunk at the offensive end for his 1,000th point.
Cormier notched his 1,000th just over eight minutes later, hitting a 3-pointer from the left corner with the shot clock winding down to push the Greyhounds’ lead to 48-38 with 11:38 on the clock.
Loyola would go up by 10 on two occasions after that, but Fairfield trimmed the advantage to three, 61-58, on a Maurice Barrow layup with 74 ticks on the clock. The Greyhounds, however, scored the next four points to seal the win.
Cormier finished with 21 points, while Etherly had 16 and nine rebounds. Jordan Latham added 10 points, and R.J. Williams distributed three assists.
Cormier, Etherly Score 1,000th Points
Erik Etherly and Dylon Cormier became the 33rd and 34th players in Loyola men’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points as Greyhounds, and they did so in the same game, a feat never before accomplished at Loyola.
Etherly scored his 1,000th on a layup just 15 seconds into the second half at Fairfield, and Cormier followed suit on a 3-pointer from the left corner 8:07 later.
1,000 Points In the Same Game
Prior to Monday night, through unofficial research, the last time a school had two players reach 1,000 points in the same game was nearly five years ago when Fernandez Lockett and Todd Babington of Austin Peay hit the plateau on March 7, 2008
However, it took just 24 hours for it to happen again as North Carolina State’s Richard Howell and Lorenzo Brown got to 1,000 in the Wolfpack’s 86-84 loss at Wake Forest on Tuesday night.
And Olson Makes It Three
Erik Etherly and Dylon Cormier were not the first Loyola players to score 1,000 in a career this season. Robert Olson reached the mark on January 6 against Saint Peter’s.
It is the first time in Loyola’s 103 seasons of men’s basketball that the program has had three players with 1,000 career points at the same time.
Three 1,000-Point Scorers In MAAC History
Since the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference was founded in 1980, this is just the sixth instance of a team touting three players with 1,000-plus points at the same time.
Iona (2000-2001, 2011-2012) and Siena (1999-2000, 2009-2010) have accomplished twice, while Loyola joins Niagara (2004-2005) with a one-time occurrence.
Shooting In Last Two Games
The Greyhounds have posted their best back-to-back shooting performances of the season in their last two games, making 60.4-percent of shots against Marist on January 17 and an even 50-percent at Fairfield. It is the first time this year the team has shot 50-percent or better in back-to-back games.
Prior to the Marist and Fairfield games, Loyola had its lowest field-goal output of the year in consecutive games, making just 19 against both Fairfield (at home) and at Rider.
Combined, the Greyhounds have shot 55.8-percent from the field against Marist and Fairfield, making 48-of-86 shots. Loyola’s 19 field goals made came in just 38 shots, their fewest of the season, but the Greyhounds attempted 31 free throws, making 24.
Fewer Threes, Better Results
In the last two games, Loyola has taken its two lowest amounts of 3-point attempts – seven against Marist, six at Fairfield – but the Greyhounds have made eight of those 13 attempts.
Their 61.5-percent output from 3-point range in those games is more than 33 points higher than their season percentage of 28.3.
Win With Four Assists
Loyola’s win on Monday night at Fairfield came with the Greyhounds assisting on just four of their 19 made baskets. It was also just one game removed from Loyola setting a season-best with 19 assists against Marist.
It is the first time since January 25, 2009, (an overtime victory against Marist) that the Greyhounds won a game with four or fewer assists. Additionally, it is just the third time this season that a MAAC team has won a game with four or fewer assists (Niagara has done it twice).
Over the last five seasons, Loyola is 16-28 when finishing with nine or less assists, and the Greyhounds are 3-6 when that happens this season.
Thursday Night’s Assists Versus Marist
The Greyhounds’ good shooting performance against Marist could be credited in large part to a season-best 19 assists. With 29 field goals, Loyola had assists on 65.5-percent of its made shots.
Dylon Cormier tied his career-high with six assists, marking the second time in five games the junior guard has hit that total (also January 4 against Rider).
R.J. Williams and Robert Olson also had four assists, and Erik Etherly passed out three.
Cormier Tops 20
Dylon Cormier scored 21 points on Monday night at Fairfield, the fifth time this season he has scored 20 or more. In 13 career games that he has finished with 20 or more (seven times in 2011-2012 and once in 2010-2011), the Greyhounds are 12-1 with the only loss coming a few weeks ago at Memphis.
Latham Tallies 10
Jordan Latham made 4-of-5 shots and scored 10 points at Fairfield, the second time in his career that he has tallied double figures in points. Latham also logged a career-best 28 minutes. His top scoring game came December 1 at Florida Gulf Coast when he finished with 17 points.
R.J. Williams Returns To Court
Sophomore guard R.J. Williams made his 2012-2013 debut against Marist and played 27 minutes. He hit a pair of 3-pointers, one in each half, and finished with six points and four assists. He also had a steal and blocked the second shot of his career. All four of Williams’ assists were to post players in the paint.
At Fairfield, Williams played the most minutes of his career, 39, and scored seven points, making a pair of jumpers and all three of his free throws. He also had three rebounds and three assists.
Brooks Also With Career-High
Julius Brooks tied his career-high with 12 points against Marist, matching the total he scored on December 15 in a win over Mount St. Mary’s.
Brooks also made a career-best six field goals on just eight attempts. Three of his baskets came on dunks. He also led Loyola with five rebounds.
Scoring In The 70s
Loyola scored 72 points against Marist, marking the fifth time this season and sixth time the team has scored 70 or more points. The Greyhounds are undefeated in those six games.
Dating to the start of the 2011-2012 season, Loyola is 16-1 when scoring 70 or more points, the lone loss coming in an 83-79 defeat to Rider on February 24, 2012.
Holding Opponents Under 60
The Greyhounds limited Marist to 58 points, the 10th time this season they have held an opponent to 59 or fewer on the scoreboard. Loyola has won all 10 of those games.
Including the 2011-2012 season, Loyola has held opponents to 59 or fewer 21 times, all victories.
Loyola leads the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season in scoring defense, allowing an average of 60.8 points per game. Last season, the Greyhounds allowed an average of 64.2 points per game.
Trimmed Minutes
With the return of R.J. Williams to the rotation, no Loyola player was on the floor for more than 32 minutes against Marist, the first time this season that has happened in a game.
Olson Sets Career-Highs
Robert Olson led all scorers at Rider, setting a career-high in scoring for the second time in a month. He finished with 25, eclipsing his previous best of 22 against Mount St. Mary’s on December 15, 2012.
Olson also set career-highs at Rider in field goals made (10), field goals attempted (22) and 3-pointers attempted (13).
Olson, who became the 32nd player in Loyola history to score his 1,000th point when he reached the mark in the second half against Saint Peter’s on Sunday, January 6.
Brooks’ Board Work
Julius Brooks led Loyola and tied for game-high honors with eight rebounds at Rider, matching his season-high for 2012-2013 (also vs. Saint Peter’s, December 8). He then pulled down five to lead the team against Marist.
It was the ninth time this season that Brooks has logged four or more rebounds, and the Greyhounds are now 8-1 in those contests.
Doing What He Does, A Little Of Everything
Anthony Winbush has continued to contribute in just about every way possible, something he has done throughout the year. Versus Fairfield, Winbush led Loyola with nine rebounds and five assists, while contributing a pair of steals and a blocked shot.
Winbush leads the team in total rebounds (113) and is second in rebounds per game (6.6) and assists per game (2.4). He is also fourth on the team with a 6.5 points per game average.
Cormier Getting To The Line
Through 20 games this season, Dylon Cormier has shot 154 free throws, an average of 7.7 per game.
Cormier has also made 74.0-percent of his free throws this season (114 total), good for 32.3-percent of his 352 points this year.
He has already surpassed his made free throw total from a year ago when he made 108 in 160.
In his two-plus seasons at Loyola, Cormier has made 275-of-393 (70-percent) from the line, totals that are both 16th in school history.
Guards To The Boards
Robert Olson and Dylon Cormier, Loyola’s starting guards, combined for 15 rebounds at home against Fairfield. Olson grabbed a career-high eight – he had recorded seven on seven occasions – and Cormier was two off his season and career-high with seven.
This season, Cormier is averaging 4.7 rebounds per game, good for 16th in the MAAC, while Olson is just behind with 4.5 per game.
Olson has pulled down five or more boards 10 times this year, and Cormier has reached or exceeded that total nine times.
Congratulations Graduate
Erik Etherly became the most recent Loyola men’s basketball player to graduate, completing his undergraduate requirements in December for a bachelor of arts in communications with an emphasis in marketing and public relations. He joins Anthony Winbush – who graduated in May 2012 – as a graduate student on the Loyola roster this season. He will start his masters in education leadership this month.
Fourth To 100 Blocks
Erik Etherly matched his career-high with five blocked shots against Saint Peter’s, and in the process he became the fourth player in program history to swat 100 shots.
He joins Brian Carroll (1997-2001, 213 blocks), Shane Walker (2009-2012, 135) and George Sereikas (1989-1993, 117) in the 100-block club.
Winning Combinations
Loyola is now 9-0 when it shoots 45-percent or better in a game, and the Greyhounds are now 10-0 when scoring 65 or more points this season. The Greyhounds recently held both Saint Peter’s, Fairfield and Marist to 58 points, marking the marking the 10th time – all wins – that they have held an opponent short of 60.
26th To 400
Anthony Winbush collected a game-high nine rebounds against Mount St. Mary’s, and his final made him the 26th player in Loyola men’s basketball history to grab 400 in his career.
The graduate student, who received a medical redshirt after suffering a season-ending injury after eight games in 2010-2011, also has scored 455 points in his career.
This season, he leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game, and he is 20th all-time at Loyola with 439 career rebounds.
Telling Factors
Three stats stand out in the Greyhounds six losses this season. Loyola is now 2-6 when its opponents register a better shooting percentage, and 2-6 when its foes shoot more free throws in a game. Also, Loyola has averaged just 7.0 assists in the five losses.
In the games they have lost, the Greyhounds have shot 36.2-percent from the field, while their opponents hit at a 46.4-percent clip.
Opponents are shooting eight more free throws (26.3-18.3) per game in the six losses, as well.
Sharing The Ball
Loyola is now 8-0 this season when it has 12 or more assists. Conversely, the Greyhounds are averaging just 7-0 assists in six losses this year and 12.7 in 14 wins.
Doubling Up
Anthony Winbush notched the first double-double of his career on November 28 at Coppin State, scoring 12 points and grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds.
His 12 rebounds represented the 12th time in his tenure at Loyola that he has posted 10 or more rebounds, and it was the fourth time he has scored 10 or more points.
He also set a career-high in rebounds, eclipsing the 11 he posted in his seventh career game on November 29, 2008, at Vermont. Winbush also set a career-high in minutes played (37) and matched his previous best in free throws made (five) and attempted (six).
Late Game Heroics
Loyola’s games against Albany and Rhode Island, both wins, came down to the last four seconds of regulation (and then some).
On November 18, Albany tied the game with 3.1 ticks on the clock, Loyola Head Coach Jimmy Patsos set up an inbound play in a timeout. Graduate student Anthony Winbush threw a baseball pass 80 feet to Dylon Cormier who was inside the opposite foul line. Cormier caught the pass, laid it in with his right hand and was fouled in the process by Albany’s D.J. Evans with 1.5 seconds left.
Cormier made the free throw to provide the final margin, and Albany’s inbound pass went off the hands of Evans and out-of-bounds to secure the win.
Robert Olson then sank a 3-pointer with 3.7 on the clock at Rhode Island to force overtime where the Greyhounds would win by four.
MAAC Preseason Poll & Player of the Year
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference unveiled its preseason coaches’ poll and the league’s Preseason Player of the Year on Friday night in a live Preseason Awards Show on ESPN3. Loyola was named the team to beat in 2012-2013, and Erik Etherly was tabbed the Preseason Player of the Year by the coaches. (Complete poll and All-MAAC teams at left).
This is the first time Loyola has been selected No. 1 in the MAAC preseason poll in 24 years in the league, nor had a Greyhound player been named Preseason Player of the Year prior to Etherly.
Three Loyola players were named to the various Preseason All-MAAC teams as voted on by the coaches of the league.
Erik Etherly earned an All-MAAC First Team nod, while Dylon Cormier and Robert Olson were named to the Second Team.
Classy Senior
Senior guard Robert Olson was named one of 30 candidates for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award last week. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Olson was the Greyhounds’ third-leading scorer last season with 11.1 points per game and enters this season Loyola ranked fourth at Loyola in 3-point percentage (138-of-336, .4107) sixth in career 3-pointers made (138) and eighth in 3-pointers attempted (336). Last season, Olson was one of four Loyola players to earn All-MAAC honors, picking up Third Team mention and later All-Tournament honors.
High Marks
The Loyola men’s basketball team scored the highest amongst squads in the State of Maryland in the most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate report. The Greyhounds checked in with a 91-percent GSR, tops among the state’s nine Division I schools, for players who entered the school between 2002-2005.
Turnaround…Check
Loyola completed the turnaround from finishing the 2003-2004 season with the lowest RPI in NCAA Division I basketball. The Greyhounds finished that season with a 1-27 record the season before Jimmy Patsos took over as head coach.
Since then, Loyola has gone 131-128 and culminated the turnaround by winning a school Division I record 24 games in 2011-2012.
Patsos is one of only three coaches at the Division I level in the last 20 years to take over a program that had won zero or one game the year prior to then win 100 games at the school. He joins Steve Cleveland (BYU) and Pat Douglass (UC-Irvine) as the others.
Patsos Named Coach & Man Of The Year
Jimmy Patsos became the first Loyola coach to earn The Rock/Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors by a vote of his peers in the league.
Patsos guided the Greyhounds to a school Division I high 24 wins and a program MAAC record 13 victories. He earned his 100th career coaching victory in November 2012 and led the Greyhounds to the No. 2 seed in the MAAC Championships.
Later in March, Patsos was named the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award for his work on and off the court, an honor presented by CollegeInsider.com.
Century Mark
Head Coach Jimmy Patsos became the third coach in Loyola history to win 100 games when the Greyhounds defeated UMBC, 73-63, on the road last season. Patsos, who is now in his ninth season, took over a team that finished 1-27 during the 2002-2003 season. He won his 100th game in his 215th career game.
Last season, Patsos moved into third-place all time at Loyola in victories, trailing only Lefty Reitz (349 wins, 1937-44, 1945-61) and Nap Doherty (165, 1961-74).
| Loyola All-Time Coaching Wins List | |||
| 1. | 349 | Lefty Reitz | 1937-1944, 1945-1961 |
| 2. | 165 | Nap Doherty | 1961-1974 |
| 3. | 136 | Jimmy Patsos | 2004-present |
| 4. | 85 | Mark Amatucci | 1982-1989 |
| 5. | 72 | Gary Dicovitsky | 1976-1981 |
Baltimore Bred And More From Nearby
Since taking over as head coach in 2004, Jimmy Patsos has put an emphasis on recruiting locally, and it has never shown as much as on this year’s roster. Four players – junior guard Dylon Cormier (Cardinal Gibbons), junior forward Jordan Latham (City) and sophomore guard R.J. Williams and freshman forward Josh Forney (St. Frances) are products of schools within the city limits.
Six more players played in high school within 50 miles of Loyola, as the crow flies (thanks daftlogic.com): Jarred Jones, John Carroll, 20.5; Tyler Hubbard, Montrose Christian, 32.6 miles; Robert Olson, Georgetown Prep, 33.9; Anthony Winbush, T.C. Williams, 43.7; and Erik Etherly, Annandale, 47.9.
What’s Next
The Greyhounds return to Reitz Arena for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game on Sunday, January 27. Loyola will host Iona in the first game of a men’s-women’s doubleheader at 12 noon. The women’s game against the Gaels will follow at 2:30 p.m.
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