Though Loyola men’s basketball led by as many as 12 points in the first half of its matchup with Lehigh in the first round of the Patriot League tournament, the lead had dwindled to two early in the second half.
By then, it was obvious the winner would be determined in the final minute, especially with the pace of the game having slowed down. Loyola made the key shots and stops late to defeat Lehigh, 77-73, and move on to a quarterfinal matchup at top-seeded Bucknell on March 6 at 7 p.m.
The Greyhounds (12-18) won the way head coach Josh Loeffler figured they would have to — by winning the game at the end.
“You don’t want to address it too early because you want to make a run and pull away,” Loeffler said. “Under two [minutes] I was like, ‘Guys, this is going to come down to the last minute. It’s going to come down to the last couple possessions. We cannot fray. We have to be together.’ That was really the message for the entire game was, ‘Wins in March, wins in March Madness, wins on a run come from having a team that’s very connected.’ And I thought that we stayed connected throughout the entire game tonight.”
Loyola led by no more than five points in the second half. The Greyhounds fell behind, 67-65, with 5:19 left in the game, after which sophomore guard Jacob Theodosiou hit a 3-pointer to give Loyola a one-point lead. The two teams traded jabs until Lehigh took a 73-72 lead with less than a minute to go.
Greyhounds freshman guard Braeden Speed then made the biggest play of the game, converting an and-one with 32.4 seconds remaining:
Speed said the decisive play called for him to use Theodosiou’s screen to drive the ball, but in the event that two defenders followed the ball, Speed could kick it back out to Theodosiou. However, Theodosiou’s screen crushed Lehigh guard Nasir Whitlock, opening the door for Speed to go to the rim.
Speed is averaging 8.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest on the season. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound guard out of Phoenix, Ariz., scored 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting in 36 minutes against Lehigh. He appreciates Loeffler trusting him with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line.
“It means a lot,” Speed said. “I’ve been in that situation a couple times this year, and I’ve come up short and I made one earlier. That means a lot.”
Speed echoed his coach’s thoughts on how to handle a back-and-forth second half.
“Just stay calm, stay poised, never too high, never too low,” the guard said.
Loyola got the stop it needed on the following possession and hit two free throws to put the game away. Next, the Greyhounds will take on Bucknell, the top-rated Patriot League squad on KenPom, a college hoops analytics site. They lost twice to the Bison during the regular season, once by 12 points in Lewisburg, Pa., and most recently by just three points in Baltimore.
Now, Loyola has one more chance.
“I feel like we should’ve gotten that game at home. At their place, we were not very good,” Loeffler said. “We need to take a step by playing well on the road against them. I think everyone in our locker room believes because we do feel like we had a great opportunity to win that game at home and we did not. Everyone here just needs to go up there, approach the game the way we did today and be locked in and connected like we were today as well.”
JOHNSON ON THE MEND
UMBC senior guard Bryce Johnson was taken to a local hospital after landing on his head and neck in attempting to come down with an offensive rebound during a 78-74 loss to UAlbany on Feb. 27, but he was back on the bench watching his team during a 79-69 loss to Vermont on March 1.
The Retrievers finished the regular season 13-18 overall and 5-11 in the America East. UMBC will visit top-seeded Bryant in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs on March 8. Johnson’s status is unclear. The 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard is averaging 16.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game this year.
“He’s coming along,” Retrievers head coach Jim Ferry said after the loss to Vermont. “That was obviously a really scary situation. His body went into shock with the spinal reaction. He thinks he’s going to play, but he still has to go back to the doctors and get cleared and all that stuff, so we’ll see. … It was great seeing him when he came back from the hospital. We’re going to see what goes on day by day and we’re just going to listen to the doctors.”
Senior guards Marcus Banks Jr. (21 points) and Marlon Short (16) played well enough to give UMBC a shot in the regular-season finale against Vermont, but the team didn’t have enough juice to get to the finish line without Johnson. Forward Josh Odunowo was fighting through a foot injury as well.
The good news is that the Retrievers were idle on March 4, when the rest of the league was finishing up the regular-season slate. UMBC lost both of its two matchups with Bryant this year, though the Retrievers lost by just two in Rhode Island on Feb. 15.
“It all just comes down to matchups,” Ferry said. “For us right now, it’s just about getting healthy. We played Josh on one leg today. We’ve just got to get healthy this week. We’ve got to take advantage of this bye and still just focus on getting better and putting in a couple tweaks. Once we figure out who we play, we’ll start the preparation from there.”
Photo Credit: Larry French