 "Photo: Loyola Athletic Department/Steve Woltmann")
During their recent skid, Loyola has struggled finishing games. Although that held true in Saturday’s loss against Cleveland State, on Thursday, Loyola was able to put Youngstown State away in overtime behind their top offensive outburst of the season. In a 92-85 victory, the Ramblers placed five players in double figures while shooting a season-high 54 percent from the field.
“The key was we were able to get a lot of high percentage shots,” said freshman forward Ben Averkamp on the game, “Even our threes came off of good looks.”
The field goal percentage for the Ramblers was an incredible 74 percent in the first half after they started 14-16 from the field; however, they still trailed 53-45 at halftime to Youngstown State’s nine three-pointers. The Ramblers’ defense picked up in the second half as they held Youngstown State to just 25 points before allowing just seven in the extra period.
“We just knew we had to keep playing our tough team defense,” said sophomore forward Walt Gibler. “YSU shot incredibly well in the first half and we knew that if we kept playing our defense, they would eventually start missing shots.”
Loyola also had to weather the early departure of leading scorer junior Terrance Hill due to a technical foul ejection four minutes into the game as a result of an argument with another player that led to shoving.
“Everyone knew that we would have to step up our games,” said Averkamp, “When you lose to a tough competitor like T, collectively we all saw an opportunity to make plays for the team.”
Other Ramblers needed to step up, and did in a big way. Junior Geoff McCammon had 25 points while playing all 45 minutes. Senior Marcus Thomas and sophomore Courtney Stanley also logged in 40-plus minutes of action. Thomas came off the bench to score 17 while Stanley had 18 and also dished out nine assists.
The front-court rotation of senior Andy Polka, Averkamp and sophomore Gibler also played very well. The three big men combined for 30 points and 21 rebounds with Averkamp chipping in with four blocks and Polka handing out six assists.
Gibler, on the play of the Loyola big men, said, “We will do whatever it takes to win, including making the extra pass. I think we look for each other on offense because we really trust the abilities of each other to score and make plays.”
The Penguins were paced by Kelvin Bright’s 22 points and had five other players enter double-digits in the scoring column.
Unfortunately for the Ramblers, their ability to finish off the win on Thursday did not carry over to Saturday. Up 49-40 with nine minutes to play, Cleveland State went on a 15-2 run to give them a 55-51 lead, before they held on as McCammon’s half-court heave at the buzzer went long.
Loyola did maintain a balanced scoring effort, placing four players in double figures, but their shooting percentage was 40 percent, off 14 percent from Thursday. Hill and Averkamp led the way with 12 apiece, while Gibler had 11 and Stanley had 10. Led by 21 combined rebounds from Averkamp, Gibler and Polka, the Ramblers won the rebound advantage, but they lost the turnover war which hurt, especially in the first half when Cleveland St. had 10 more shots than the Ramblers. Loyola went into the half down only by one thanks to 11 made free throws while Cleveland State hadn’t attempted any from the charity stripe. That role was reversed in the second half when Cleveland State went 15-20 from the foul line, enabling them to take the lead on the Ramblers.
The Vikings also placed four players in double figures, led by Jared Cunningham’s 15 off the bench. The loss dropped the Ramblers to 13-10 overall, with a 4-9 record in Horizon League play.
Loyola travels to Butler on Monday, Feb. 8. Results of the game were unavailable at press time. Loyola is looking to try and knock off a nationally ranked Butler Bulldogs team at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the second straight year. The Ramblers then return home on Saturday, Feb. 13 to host in-city rival UIC. Also, Loyola learned that the team has been invited to travel to Creighton on Saturday, Feb. 20 as part of ESPN’s Bracketbusters weekend.
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