Wednesday, January 21, 2015 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago

It was just two weeks ago that Loyola captured their first MVC road conference victory with a last-second bucket by Christian Thomas. The win filled Rambler fans with encouragement and got some attention from around the league.

Both the Ramblers and Aces have struggled since. Evansville rebounded from the tough home loss with an easy win at Bradley and a two-point squeaker of a win at Missouri State (without Marcus Marshall) before a 20-point beating by the Shockers. The Aces have returned ailing guard Adam Wing to their lineup, but lost Wing’s replacement Mislav Brzoja for 2-3 weeks with a broken hand against Wichita State. The Ramblers were outscored by 19 points in the second half against the Shockers at home, eked out a home win over Drake, and faded in the waning minutes for a painful road loss against SIU.

Evansville had grown used to a sizable and consistent contribution from third leading scorer and second leading rebounder Brzoja, who has averaged 12.4 ppg and 4.6 rpg over the past five games. Without him available against Loyola, the Aces may struggle and be forced to rely even more on Mockevicius and Balentine. Wing, who just returned to action against WSU after missing six games, is still working on returning to form. Evansville has won two consecutive road games, but their two best quality road wins on the year—at Belmont and at Missouri State—came by a total of five points, with both opponents playing without their prolific leading scorers.

Loyola’s diminishing efficiency in a number of areas and Evansville’s struggles against better teams on the road promises to make this game another battle. The Ramblers’ last two games have tied and set new season lows on offensive rebounds, with only four against Drake and two against SIU. Milton Doyle hasn’t scored in double figures since the last Evansville game, and he recorded a new career low of only two field goal attempts at SIU (his previous low was four). In the Monday coaches' teleconference, Coach Moser said there's no opportunity to rest Doyle, he has been "hampered," and his practices have been scaled back. Meanwhile, Earl Peterson and Joe Crisman have scored just two points combined in 51 total court minutes over the past two games. And after scoring 12 points in 15 minutes of the SIU game, Montel James was pulled from the game three minutes into the second half and did not return.

This game may be one of the most crucial of the season for the Ramblers. The letdown of effectiveness and execution over the past two and a half games and coming off a loss to the lowest RPI team in the league can be overcome by following through on the first season sweep of a conference foe. A win would secure a tiebreaker, stay within striking distance of 3rd or 4th place, and create distance over Evansville in the standings; a loss might irrevocably undermine confidence in a team with seven newcomers just before two more very tough road games.

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 120aaa.pdf

Evansville game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... a_evan.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id ... la-Chicago

Vegas odds: Loyola by 2

[quote="JCT" This game may be one of the most crucial of the season for the Ramblers. The letdown of effectiveness and execution over the past two and a half games and coming off a loss to the lowest RPI team in the league can be overcome by following through on the first season sweep of a conference foe. [/quote]

Nice write-up, as usual! I definitely agree with your assessment of why this game is crucial. If we are going to have any chance of post season play, this game is a must win for us. I hope Doyle feels better and gets some playing time, but if not, I would expect Porter to give Peterson and Turk the green light! The team is obviously substantially better with a healthy Doyle in the line-up, but I think we may be better off in the short term and the long term playing without him if he's not 100%. I would rather risk losing a few games now rather than lose at Arch Madness because our key players are not healthy.

Anyone else not finding the game on ESPN3?

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Cigarboy sucks!

Is this the smallest home crowd in the history of Loyola basketball?

Doesn't look like it's on ESPN3

That's the only thing LoyolaRamblers.com says. This is a cluster

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Cigarboy sucks!

For those of you who aren't able to view at the moment...Doyle not playing tonight.

It was advertised on the site...but just disappeared

It's on Ramblervision. Try here...

http://www.loyolaramblers.com/collegesportslive/

thanks

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Cigarboy sucks!