The Greyhounds faced a familiar foe Saturday night when they took on Fairfield University in their home opener at Reitz Arena. This was Loyola’s first matchup with a MAAC opponent since leaving the conference at the end of last year. After taking an early lead, the Hounds fought off a fierce comeback by the Stags to win 59-52.
The win moves Loyola to 3-0 on the season, Fairfield drops to 1-2. The win was in front of a sellout crowd of over 2,000 spectators.
Loyola opened the game on a 13-3 run led by Dylon Cormier and Eric Laster. Cormier was the only scorer from Loyola to hit double figures in a sloppy, low scoring affair. Loyola seemed to fall flat offensively in the second half when they failed to score a field goal for the first 11 minutes, allowing Fairfield to battle their way back in to the game and eventually take a one-point lead.
Loyola shot a season low 34.1 percent from the field and a dismal 26.1 percent in the second half. Loyola held a 32-23 lead at the half before surrendering their lead with 11:49 remaining in the game. After Marcus Gilbert put the Stags up with his layup, both teams went scoreless for the next three minutes until Cormier grabbed an offensive rebound and laid it in to end the drought.
The Hounds and Stags traded scores for a few minutes before Cormier converted a three-point play to put Loyola up for good with just under seven minutes to play.
Tyler Hubbard and Jarred Jones carried the Hounds down the stretch with clutch free throw shooting from Jones and a big three by Hubbard to extend Loyola’s lead late in the game.
Fairfield effectively shot themselves out of this game with a terrible 33.3 percent from the free-throw line and only 5 of 20 from three-point range. Loyola shot a respectable 24 of 32 from the free throw line and 5 of 15 from beyond the arc.
Cormier scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Greyhounds, he leads the team in both points per game and rebounds per game. R.J. Williams added eight points of his own, along with four assists and three steals.
The Greyhounds were decisively outrebounded by the Stags 48-23 but forced Fairfield to turn the ball over 20 times.
Doug Chappell almost single handedly kept Fairfield in the game with 16 points and seven rebounds, half of which made up Fairfield’s late rally.