Time to play Loyola at home. They are the better of the two teams left on my schedule but with the home crowd, I like our changes better in this game. I want to get 20 wins during the regular season, but of course will have a 2nd chance to get 20 wins during the conference tourney.
Loyola is very talented and this will be a tough game. Again, we must slow down Guasco, their SF, for a chance to win.
An incredibly fast tempo leads to Andres needing to rest after 7 minutes. We are up 16-11.
A back and forth first half ends with an Andres 3 at the buzzer to give us a 40-39 lead. Very high tempo by both sides.
Oglesby leads them with 9. Andres is the player of the half. He leads us with 13 points, 4 assists, 2 boards, and a block. He is shooting 4 of 11, 3 of 5, and 2 of 5.
Hodari has added 9 and Santos has 8.
Early in the 2nd half, Andres draws a 3rd foul on Guasco, but Andres is already sucking air and will have to come probably by the 15 minute mark...
He might have to leave soon, but it is not before he blocks a shot of one of their guards and then takes it all the way for a huge dunk that gets the crowd ignited!
The crowd boost does give him a bit of energy but he has to leave with 14 minutes to go, but only after he went on a personal 9 point scoring run.
Once he leaves, everyone else steps up and we continue the nice run. With 10 minutes to go, we are up 63-53 and the crowd is rocking the arena.
At about the 9 minute mark, they go on a 5-0 run that cuts the lead to 5, but after I call a timeout, Santos hits 3 baskets including 2 3's to rebuild the lead to 12.
Now with 6 minutes to go, we start slowing things down and milking the clock. We also get a fully rested Andres back into the game.
With 3:29 to go, Solomon fouls out. I go with Owensworth off the bench looking to go big for defense since we are already up by 15. Andres will be our primary ballhandler in this lineup.
We win 87-70.
Santos wins player of the game. 25 points, 10 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal. He shot 8 of 14, 4 of 5, and 5 of 5. He was huge in the run that built the lead when Andres went out, although Andres got the crowd going right before that run started.
Nice way to get our 20th win with a convincing display against one of the best teams in the conference
We shot 48% while holding them to 46%. We had 14 fast break points to their 6. We went 15 of 28 from the arc which is our best of the year.
Andres finished with 23 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. He shot 8 of 16, 4 of 7, and 3 of 7.
Solomon had 14 points, 4 assists, 3 boards, and 1 steal. He also had 5 turnovers, mostly from trying to force some alley-oops on the fast break. He was 6 of 10 from and 2 of 5 from the arc.
Hodari had 12 points, 3 boards, 3 steals, and an assist. He shot 4 of 10 and 4 of 6 from the arc which was a pleasant surprise. Again, all of his shots were wide open 3's usually off feeds from Solomon or Andres.
Pait finished with 2 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists in one of his more disappointing games.
Belser had 2 points and 2 boards in just 6 minutes.
Owensworth played 22 minutes off the bench and had 7 points and 7 boards including a 3 which he can occasionally hit. He shot 2 of 6 and 1 of 3 from the arc.
Andres got Guasco in foul trouble and he only played 15 minutes this game. In those 15 minutes, he was 4 of 9 from the field for 11 poiints. He also had 3 boards and 2 assists. Their star, Oglesby led them with 15 points on 3 of 12 shooting as Hodari did well against him.