NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team battled to an 89-79 non-conference loss in its annual schism with historic Jesuit rival the Loyola University (La.) Wolf Pack on Tuesday night in The Den.
SHC grabbed an early 16-7 lead over the NAIA's 17
th-ranked Wolf Pack (14-4) just eight minutes into the game, but Loyola would storm back over the next five minutes to cut the Badger lead to 20-19.
A Wolf Pack 3-pointer would later knot the contest at 22-22 at the 6:15 mark before a Loyola free throw and fast break bucket put the home team up 25-22 with 5:33 until intermission. Loyola kept the Badgers at arm's length the final five minutes of the period, carrying a 39-34 cushion into halftime.
Loyola built out a double-digit lead early in the second half, but the Badgers would rally to cut the deficit to 83-75 with a minute to play. After a Loyola free throw, senior SHC guard
Gresyn Rogers of Casa Grande, Ariz. would drain a 3-pointer to make it an 85-79 difference with 28.4 seconds showing. Four consecutive successful free throws by Loyola would close out the victory for the Wolf Pack.
Senior forward
Chase Shellman of Louisville, Ky. scored a game-high 19 points for the Badgers while hauling in 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double effort of the year. Junior guard
Ron Rice out of Harlem, N.Y. added 16 points while freshman guard
Maurice McCullum of Plainfield, Ill. and freshman forward
Denys Bobchuk from Kyiv, Ukraine each contributed 12 points.
As a team, SHC shot 53.3% (32-60) from the field and 37.5% (6-16) from 3-point range. The Badgers lost 27 turnovers against 21 steals by the Wolf Pack defense, but managed to edge out a 39-36 advantage in rebounding. Spring Hill made 64.3% (9-14) of their free throw attempts.
Myles Burns, Andrew Stagni and Terry Smith Jr. of Loyola each scored 14 points as five Wolf Pack players reached double-digits in scoring. Loyola shot 47.8% (32-67) overall and made 37.5% (9-24) of their shots from beyond the arc. The Wolf Pack committed 19 turnovers in the face of four steals by the Badgers and were successful on only 61.5% (16-26) of their free throw opportunities. Loyola outscored SHC 31 to 16 in points off turnovers.
The Badgers (3-13, 2-5 SIAC West) will return to conference play on Saturday when they host Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) opponent the LeMoyne-Owen College Magicians (8-5, 5-3 SIAC West) at 4 p.m. in the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center.
