Loyola’s Andrew Kostecka became the second player in school history to earn All-Patriot League First Team honors for the second time in his career March 2, when the conference distributed postseason awards.
Kostecka was also named to the League’s All-Defensive Team for the third year in a row, a first for a Loyola player.
Three Greyhounds were named to the All-Rookie Team — Santi Aldama, Golden Dike and Cam Spencer — marking the first time since 2009-10 that a trio from the same school were honored.
Kostecka, who has missed the last one-and-a-half games with an injury, leads the Patriot League in points per game (19.9) for the second year in a row after he earned All-Patriot League First Team recognition in 2018-19.
Through games of March 1, Kostecka is the only player in NCAA Division I to average 19.5 points, five rebounds, 1.8 steals and two assists per game this season. Taking out the two games in which he was injured and did not score, Kostecka is averaging 21.5 points per game this year.
His 576 points this season are tied for 11th in school single-season history, and last month he moved into sole possession of third place all-time at Loyola with 1,751 points; that total is also good for eighth in Patriot League history. He has scored 20 or more points 14 times this season and 34 times during his career. He also had his eighth career 30-plus point game, and fourth of 2019-20, in January.
Kostecka, from Germantown, Maryland, has made 602 field goals in his career to rank seventh in school history, and his 147 career 3-pointers made are eighth. He is also eighth in school history in free throws attempted (499) and made (400).
On the defensive side, Kostecka is second in the Patriot League in steals (56) and steals per game (1.9), and he also leads the team with 17 blocked shots this year. His 222 career steals are second all-time at Loyola, eighth in the Patriot League.
Loyola’s three All-Rookie Team members form the first trio from a school to be named to the squad in the same year since 2009-10. Bucknell University — with Bryson Johnson, Mike Muscala and Joe Willman in 2009-10 — was the first in conference history to be so honored.
Aldama has played in just nine games this year, but his entry to the Loyola lineup in February coincided with the Greyhounds going 6-3 during his time. The rookie from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, has been named the conference’s Rookie of the Week three times in the final four weeks of the season.
He has averaged 14.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 blocked shots in the games he’s played since coming back from an injury. He has scored in double-figures in all but one of those games and has posted double-doubles in three of the last four contests, including a 20-point, 12-rebound effort March 1 against Lehigh University.
If he were eligible for the Patriot League statistical leaders — players must participate in 75 percent of their team’s games in order to be listed — Aldama would rank first in rebounds and blocks per game among rookies and second in points per game.
Dike, who came to the Evergreen campus from Malaga, Spain, has been one of just two Loyola players to see action in all 31 games this year and has steadily increased his contributions throughout the year. Over the course of the season, Dike has averaged 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game while shooting 58.5 percent from the field.
In conference games, Dike’s scoring has risen as he is averaging 7.4 points per game and he has had six games where he has scored 10 or more points. He posted his first double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds at Lehigh in January before scoring 14 points to go with 12 boards at Lafayette.
Dike has been one of the most effective offensive rebounders in the Patriot League this year, grabbing a team-high 64 to rank fifth in the conference with 2.1 per game. Overall, he is 16th in the conference in rebounds per game, second among freshmen.
Spencer also missed a chunk of the season with an injury — January 5 through February 1 — a stretch of nine games during which Loyola was 1-8. In the 22 games he has played, the native of Davidsonville, Maryland, has averaged 9.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
At the time of his injury, Spencer was leading NCAA Division I by a wide margin in assist-to-turnover ratio. To date, he has 66 assists with 17 turnovers for an assist-to-turnover mark of 3.89:1, which would rank third in the nation.
He also has been the Greyhounds’ best 3-point shooter in Patriot League games, making 44.7 percent from behind the arc. Spencer also is the team’s best long-range shooter overall, connecting on 42.4 percent of his shots.
Loyola will be back on the floor March 3 to open the Patriot League Championships with a first round game at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
— Loyola Athletics press release
Photo Credit: Larry French/Loyola Athletic Communications