A final weekend split put the Loyola Greyhounds men?s basketball team as the third seed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. A 73-71 loss at Niagara Friday and a 74-71 win at Canisius tied the Greyhounds (17-12, 12-6 MAAC) with Siena, whom Loyola had swept in two games this year.
The next task for Loyola will be preparation for the conference tournament in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In the first round, the Greyhounds come up against tournament host Fairfield (13-18, 10-8).
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“We are excited to play Fairfield,” said third-year head coach Jimmy Patsos. “They are the only team we did not beat this year. We are playing well and it should be a good match up.”
Loyola lost twice to the Stags within six days in early February, including at Fairfield where Loyola lost 65-62 after letting up a 13-0 run from the Stags to end the game.
Healthy players will determine how deep the Greyhounds go into the tournament. Freshman guard Brett Harvey should play after suffering a concussion last weekend, and Omari Isreal, Hassan Fofana and Michael Tuck should be available to the Greyhounds for the tournament.
“Tuck is the x-factor for us,” Patsos said. The junior has been struggling to overcome injuries to both ankles and most recently was sidelined with the flu this weekend.
Fairfield head coach Ed Cooley is in his first season with the Stags and despite losing five of his first six conference games, the Stags turned their season around by winning 9 of their final 12 MAAC games.
“I credit our young men for buying into how we wanted to defend,” Cooley said about the turn around. Playing hard defense against the Greyhounds, in particular concentrating on Loyola guard and First Team All-MAAC selection Gerald Brown, is what Fairfield will do to neutralize the Greyhounds offense.
“We concentrated on their personnel,” Cooley said. “We have to try to get them to beat us on their counters rather than their original set plays.”
The Greyhounds and Stags both have winning road records in the MAAC at 6-3 and 5-4 respectively. Cooley thinks that being the home team could not give the Stags a true advantage in the game.
“We play better on the road, so I don?t know how much home court advantage we will have,” Cooley said. “They had us at our place here and we played one of our better games down at their place so we will really be concentrating on that game.”
LOYOLA IN THE MAAC
» Marquis Sullivan was named to the Third Team All-MAAC Monday with his 13.2 points a game.
» The Loyola women?s basketball team (17-11, 8-5 MAAC) also drew a third seed in the MAAC tournament and will play at 11:30 a.m. Friday against Canisius
» Senior guard Jill Glessner was named to the First Team All-MAAC from Loyola and junior transfer Vika Sholokhova was named to the third team. Freshman Erica DiClemente earned a spot on the All-MAAC Rookie Team.
