Rider forward Jason Thompson?s performance in his team?s 81-67 win over Loyola on Jan. 13 in Lawrenceville, N.J., isn?t an easy one for the Greyhounds to forget: a season-high 28 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks.
But for Loyola to contain Thompson ? and gain ground in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference race ? the Greyhounds? big men must find a way to shut down the 6-foot-11, 250-pound pro prospect who is drawing NBA scouts to tonight?s game at 7 at Reitz Arena.
“I was hoping that Jason Thompson wasn?t going to hurt us like that,” Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos said after the loss to Rider. “But he did, and that was a lesson learned.”
Patsos is hoping 6-foot-7, 215-pound Michael Tuck, 6-foot-10, 270-pound Hassan Fofana and 6-foot-8, 225-pound Omari Isreal have learned from their previous failure. Tuck (11.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg) has been especially key for the Greyhounds (15-12, 10-5), as the senior posted four games of at least 20 points during a recent six-game winning streak. He had 15 points and 11 rebounds in an 83-76 overtime win at Siena (16-9, 11-4) on Saturday.
Isreal, who averages 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, has been integral in interior defense and provides a low-post option offensively. In an 85-56 win over Siena last month, he didn?t score a point, but spurred fastbreaks with a game-high 14 rebounds.
But nobody knows how important theplay of Isreal and Tuck is than Patsos.
After the loss to Rider, Patsos said Isreal “has to step up,” and after the team?s loss to Niagara (16-8, 10-5) he said: “I don?t want to point fingers, but we were playing really well when Michael Tuck was playing well.”
Both responded with strong contributions the next few games, but will have to maintain their momentum to stop Thompson.
The senior has led the Broncs in scoring 17 times this year and rebounding 20 en route to averaging 20.1 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. But playing just as well is his brother, Ryan, a guard who averages 15 points, 6.3 rebounds and a team-high 3.7 assists per game.
If Loyola defeats Rider (18-8, 11-4), it will be just a game back of Siena in the race for first place in the conference with league games remaining against Canisius on Feb. 28 and Marist on March 2. But the Greyhounds hold the head-to-head tie breaker against Siena, having won both games. The MAAC regular season champion earns ? at worst ? an automatic berth in the National Invitation Tournament. The Greyhounds haven?t qualified for the postseason since winning the MAAC Tournament and making their lone NCAA Tournament in 1994.
“We talked about just getting focused on trying to win the league,” Tuck said. “If we pull out a few big wins near the end it will really help our playoff push.”
