Loyols Men's Hoops Report Week 1

Season Record: 1-3 (0-0 MAAC)
Last Week’s Results: L – Mt. St. Mary’s, 84-76; W – Tennessee St., 73-70; *L – Boston College, 90-57; *L – Cornell, 82-72

*Preseason NIT Tournament, Chestnut Hill, Boston, MA

The Week in Review: The Greyhounds went 1-3 to start the 2008-2009 season as they played a grueling 4 games in 5 nights, starting with a split in a pair of games at Reitz Arena, and ending in the Preseason NIT with back-to-back losses on the campus of Boston College.

The 100th season of Loyola basketball tipped off in a sold out Reitz Arena with a loss to hated rival Mt. St. Mary’s 84-76. Four Greyhounds scored in double figures led by Isaac Reid and Jamal Barney’s 14-point efforts, but it wasn’t enough in a tight game throughout that featured 4 lead changes. For the second straight year Milan Brown and his Mountaineers outplayed Loyola on the strength of a great floor game by junior point guard Jeremy Goode, who finished with 25 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Loyola found itself down 3 with under a minute left down 3 and couldn’t get a stop as Forward Sam Atupem hit a jump hook in the lane with only 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

Only 1,035 came out to Reitz for a Sunday matinee against the Tennessee St. Tigers on a sunny, yet chilly, Baltimore Sunday afternoon. This one was even tighter than the barnburner Friday night, but they ‘Hounds came away with their first mark in the win column of the season 73-70. Brett Harvey was in rhythm all afternoon from the buzzer on as he hit for a career high 34 point on 9-19 shooting, 6-12 from beyond the line. No bigger though were the 6 free throws he hit down the stretch to finish off the Ohio Valley Conference representative from Nashville.

Loyola faced a tough task in having to immediately catch a plane from Baltimore to Bean Town after Sunday’s game to take on the Boston College Eagles. The game was nationally televised on ESPNU, but the Greyhounds didn’t give the TV audience much suspense or drama after getting off the to sluggish start in trailing big, early on. The game ended with a lopsided 90-53 score, but Jamal Barney, the sophomore eligible transfer from Providence had a nice performance with 18 points.

Loyola could not come home from Boston with a .500 record because the defending Ivy League champions from Cornell University handed them an 82-72 loss in the Consolation Game of the Boston Preseason NIT bracket. Perhaps playing with heavy legs, one Greyhound who was clearly not affected by the 4/5 stretch was redshirt-sophomore guard Tony Lewis. Lewis, in his third year with the program, all season has been more aggressive on the offensive end of the court came through with a outstanding night hitting career highs in points with 23 and rebounds with 8.