Loyola men’s basketball sophomore guard Deon Perry left his team’s 69-62 loss to Navy on Feb. 21 with an ankle injury late in the first half, another tough blow in what has turned into a trying season for the Greyhounds.
Perry suffered the injury with less than three minutes to go in the half by landing on Mids senior guard Austin Inge’s foot on a 3-point attempt. He immediately hobbled to Loyola’s bench, leaving Navy to choose one of the four other players on the court at the time to shoot the ensuing free throws. Sophomore guard Tyson Commander made two of three.
Perry did not return to the game. The 5-foot-8, 160-pound guard out of Our Lady of Mount Carmel leads the Greyhounds in scoring (17.2 points per game) and assists (3.0). Loyola head coach Tavaras Hardy said Perry wasn’t walking well at halftime, so he made the decision to shut down his star for the night.
“He wanted to come in at the end of the game because he’s a competitor, but I’m not that type of coach where I would throw him in [during] those moments,” Hardy said. “He’s got to get this checked out, make sure he’s all right and when he’s ready, if the trainers and doctors clear him, we’ll get him right back out there.”
Commander took over the primary ball-handling duties for the balance of the game, totaling 34 minutes, six points and two assists while helping the Greyhounds make a late run at the Mids. Loyola fell behind by 14 points with less than nine minutes to go in regulation but cut the lead to two three times late before ultimately falling.
Loyola outscored Navy, 31-26, in the second half, and Hardy liked the way his team executed offensively without Perry as the stanza went along.
“It definitely got better. It’s one of those things where … they’ve all played all those spots anyway. It’s just Deon usually brings it up the court,” Hardy said. “He usually initiates. It kind of slows a little bit of our set calling because none of those guys know how to start those sets. … [We’re] trying to figure it out, but I thought the guys did a good job of staying positive, looking me in the eye and trying to execute what we ask them to do.”
Junior guards D’Angelo Stines (undisclosed) and Chris Kuzemka (broken hand) remained out for the Greyhounds. Stines is the team’s second-leading scorer at 9.6 points per game, while Kuzemka was shooting 36.7 percent from 3-point range prior to his early December injury. However, sophomore guard Garrett Brennan returned from an ankle injury to play 24 minutes off the bench.
Loyola fell to 6-22 overall and 4-11 in the Patriot League, while Navy broke an eight-game losing streak to move to 9-17 overall and 5-10 in the conference. The Mids were led by sophomore guard Austin Benigni (27 points) and sophomore forward Donovan Draper (14).
“I talk about the things that we need to do — the process,” Navy head coach Ed DeChellis said of snapping the losing streak. “We need to defend. We need to rebound. We need to take care of the ball. If we play toward those things, then winning and losing will take care [of themselves]. We haven’t done it consistently. We do it for a half. We do it for 10 minutes. Then we lose our focus, our poise because we’re really young. But tonight, I thought they did a good job.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Loyola Athletics