The Loyola men?s basketball team seems to be having the same bad dream time and again: Opponent jumps out to an early lead, Greyhounds battle back, opponent puts the game away in the second half.
On Friday night at Reitz Arena, Loyola had the same nightmare, this time in front of a packed house of 1,986 fans. Freshman forward Isaac Reid air balled a potential game-winning three-pointer from the corner with just two seconds remaining, and the Greyhounds fell to Fairfield, 69-67.
Fairfield secured the loose ball and the victory as the final second ticked off the clock. Loyola led by as many as 11 points in the second half, but couldn?t put the resilient Stags away.
“A good open shot is better than a difficult one,” Loyola senior forward Gerald Brown, who set up Reid?s attempt, said. “There was a lot of pressure on [Reid].”
The Greyhounds (5-8, 1-2 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and Stags (4-9, 2-1) traded baskets for the first four minutes of the second half, but Loyola would go on a 13-2 run, capped by a Michael Tuck reverse layup, to take a 55-44 lead with 12:26 left. But Fairfield would not go away, and tied the game at 61-61 at the 5:28 mark when Edney Warren completed a three-point play. Fairfield took the lead for good with 52 seconds remaining when Anthony Johnson converted a layup in traffic.
“It was small things,” Brown said. “A couple key free throws and some shots we should have knocked down.”
Loyola fell behind early, 22-14, as Fairfield forward Mike Evanovich scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the opening half on 5-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. The Greyhounds, however, battled back and trailed just 35-32 at intermission on the strength of 11 points from forward Omari Isreal.
Isreal finished with a team-high 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting and five rebounds.
The Greyhounds, entering the game struggling on offense, relied on a strong transition game to fuel their attack, outscoring the Stags, 15-0, in fast break points.
Loyola, which has dropped six of its last seven games, needs to have a short memory, as the Greyhounds host Iona, which beat them, 92-68, on Dec. 7, on Sunday at noon at Reitz Arena.
“It was a great atmosphere and a great game, unfortunately we were on the losing end and I?m paid to win games,” Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos said. “At some point you have to make plays and we are working in the right direction.”
