Saturday, January 13, 2024 3:00 p.m.
Hagan Arena, Philadelphia, Pa.
Loyola hits the road for a Saturday afternoon game against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks in Philly. It’s the conference home opener for St. Joe’s (10-5, 0-2), who has a KenPom ranking of 82. Loyola is coming in off a down-to-the-wire loss at home against Richmond.
This was going to be the year that St. Joe’s bet on Coach Billy Lange bore major fruit. Last year the Hawks had their best season since 2018, going 16-17 overall and 8-10 in conference. In both the A10 pre-season poll and The Almanac, the Hawks were picked to finish fifth. And aside from one bewildering stumble—a 57-54 home loss to Texas A&M—Commerce – the Hawks built their KenPom ranking up to 72 with a 10-3 non-con record. Their two top-50 wins, winning the Big 5 title, and taking Kentucky to overtime in Lexington turned a lot of heads and silenced most of the doubters.
But with the start of A-10 conference play, the Hawks have lost two road games in which they were favored, and blew big first-half leads both times. St. Joe’s faced last-place Rhody on the road to start the conference season, and after amassing a 48-35 lead early in the second half they were out-scored 43-26 over the last 15 minutes of the game. One week later, St. Joe’s led Saint Louis by 20 points (39-19) late in the first half. But behind 20 second-half points by Gibson Jimerson, the Billikens fought back and pulled it out 88-85.
The Hawks will start 6’2”junior guard Erik Reynolds, 6’2” junior Lynn Greer, 6’6” senior Cameron Brown, 6’9” sophomore forward Rasheer Fleming, and 7’0” freshman center Christ Essandoko. Reynolds averages 17.5 ppg and shoots 41.1% from behind the arc. Greer averages 12.7 ppg and leads the team in assists with 4.4 per game while also collecting 4.9 rebounds. Reynolds shoots 89.7% from the free throw line, and Greer fires them in at 84.7%. In the three games against Loyola last season, Greer and Reyolds combined for 110 points.
The rest of the starters have impressive numbers, too. Fleming averages 11.7 points, a team-leading 7.3 rebounds, and a team-leading 1.5 blocks. Cameron Brown chips in 11.0 points and 4.9 rebounds. And the rookie 7-footer Essandoko had 12 points and eight rebounds last time out against Saint Louis; he averages 5.9 ppg and 5.4 rpg.
The top two guys off the bench are experienced 6’8” junior forward Kacper Klaczek (5.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg), and 6’2” freshman phenom Xzayvier Brown, who averages 11.1 ppg while shooting threes at 48.1%. Six-six freshman forward Anthony Finkley also gets some playing time, averaging 2.1 ppg.
This was supposed to be the easiest stretch of St. Joe’s schedule—two of the bottom tier teams on the road, followed by mid-level Loyola, struggling LaSalle, and sputtering Duquesne at home. Starting off that string 0-2 makes Saturday’s game at Hagan Arena a must-win for St. Joe’s.
The Ramblers should have won last time out against Richmond. Loyola held the Spiders to their lowest scoring output of the season, but the offense missed on several chances down the stretch. An inopportune technical foul and some missed calls in the final minutes didn’t help. The defense for the most part is doing the job-- three of the last nine opponents have scored their lowest season point total against the Ramblers, and Loyola is ranked by KenPom as the 55th best defense, and second-best defense in conference play.
Unfortunately, Loyola’s offense is really sputtering-- down to 229th in KenPom. Philip Alston went scoreless for the first time in a Loyola uniform last time out. Turnovers have drifted back up to resemble last season, including a combined 36 TOs in the last two games. Loyola hasn’t had a game shooting 70% or better from the free throw line since November. So wouldn’t right now be a really good time for one of those mystifying, out-of-nowhere games where everything seems to go in?
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... eph_s.inddSaint Joseph’s game notes: https://sjuhawks.com/news/2024/1/12/men ... icago.aspxTV/Streaming video: ESPNU
https://www.espn.com/watch/Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=167&type=LiveLive stats: https://sjuhawks.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: Saint Joseph’s by 6.5