Loyola Ends VMI Basketball Streak at Five

Men's Basketball VMIKeydets.com

Loyola Ends VMI Basketball Streak at Five

LEXINGTON, Va. ? Senior guard Andre Collins scored 34 points and junior center Hassan Fofana added 21 points and seven rebounds to lead Loyola past VMI, 87-79, Thursday night at Cameron Hall.

The loss snapped VMI's win streak at five games, the longest in 10 seasons. VMI fell to 5-5 while Loyola improved to 6-2 on the year.

VMI started hot hitting nine of its first 12 shots from the floor and built a 23-14 lead on a Travis Holmes steal converted into a Reggie Williams dunk with 10:36 left in the first half.

But the Greyhounds answered with eight straight points to pull within one on a Collins jumper at the 7:52 mark, Loyola later assembled a 17-3 run over four minutes late in the first half to take control with Collins fueling the run with eight points.

Leading 45-39, Loyola started the second half with a 12-1 run to knock the Keydets back on their heels. The Greyhounds capped the run on a Collins layup following a stolen in-bound pass that gave Loyola its largest lead of the game, 17 points, which was matched two minutes later when Josko Alujevic nailed a three-pointer from the wing to put LC up, 62-45 at the 13:24.

But the Keydets chipped away at the deficit and pulled within six points, 80-74, when Chavis Holmes hit a pair of free throws at 2:24 that capped an 8-0 run, but that would be as close as VMI would get down the stretch.

Reggie Williams turned in his 11th career 20-point game and finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds for his third career double-double, all this season. Matt Murrer added 14 points for the Keydets, followed by Chavis Holmes with 11 points and Travis Holmes with 10 points.

Collins hit 15 of 27 shots from the floor including four 3-pointers for his second highest output of the year, surpassed only by his 39 points against Manhattan. Shane James added 10 points for the Greyhounds.

Loyola shot a steady 54.0% from the field on 34 of 63 shooting while the Keydets, who cooled down to 45% in the second half after shooting 54% in the first half, finished at 49%.

VMI, which entered the game shooting 78% from the foul line over the three previous games, hit nine of its first 10 from the line in the first half, but canned just 11 of 20 free throws after intermission.

VMI travels to College Park, Md. Saturday to face Maryland at 2:00 p.m. Loyola plays at Delaware Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom - “We were up seven in the first half and had a chance to put it away a little bit , and we come down with two straight turnovers and didn't get a shot off. We still made a run at the end of the first half and cut it to six, and we come out and get it to five and then it went to 15. We just came out flat in the first four minutes of the second half and that's where you win games. Just lack of attention to detail ? stuff we can fix, but defensively we weren't very good tonight. Collins is a pretty good player. They just beat us on hustle plays. They were more ready to play during the break than we were. We had a great crowd and great energy in the place and we didn't respond.”
Print Friendly Version