Box Score The No. 2 Loyola Wolf Pack took down No. 5 Talladega on the road Sunday, earning their first-ever Southern States Athletic Conference Regular-Season Championship
TALLADEGA, Ala. – The Southern States Athletic Conference Regular-Season Championship came down to the final day in the regular season, as the No. 2 Loyola Wolf Pack needed a second win over the No. 5 Talladega Tornadoes to earn the first-ever SSAC regular-season title. The Pack did just that, defeating Talladega 77-71 to earn the No. 1 seed in next week's SSAC Championship.
Loyola will play a quarterfinal contest against the Blue Mountain-William Carey winner on Thursday at 2:15 p.m, and the conference tournament is held at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.
The game started with a 3-pointer by each team, as Myles Burns connected on the triple for the Wolf Pack, then five straight points by Zach Wrightsil quickly gave the Pack an 8-3 lead through the first three and a half minutes. Andrew Fava extended the score to 11-3 with a 3 less than a minute later, and a dunk by Burns made it a 10-point game, 17-7. Two scores by Wrightsil and another by Brandon Davis held off Talladega's push to tie the game momentarily, but the Tornadoes made it a four-point game, 29-25, with less than four minutes until halftime.
Talladega would eventually take the lead, 30-29, and a score by Wrightsil helped keep Loyola within two by halftime, 33-31.
Davis wasted no time in the second half getting Loyola back the lead, hitting a 3-pointer in the first 20 seconds. After Talladega tied the game 38-38 a few minutes later, back-to-back 3s from Galloway and Davis pushed the Pack's lead to six with 13-plus minutes left. Then, with 11 minutes to go, free throws by Galloway and Fava gave Loyola a double-digit lead, 51-41.
A blocked shot by Davis led to a Wrightsil made shot, and Fava's 3-pointer with eight minutes to go extended the advantage to 14, 58-44. The 3s kept falling for the Pack, too, as Galloway answered a Talladega score with a 3-pointer, which was followed by another 3 from Fava, giving Loyola a 64-51 lead at the five-and-a-half-minute mark. Burns had a dunk and a 3-pointer in a 90-second span, making it a 69-54 score, but the Tornadoes used an 11-0 run in the final couple of minutes to cut the score to four, 69-65, with 60 seconds to go.
Davis was clutch down the strength, though, scoring six points in the final minute to put the game away.
Pack Facts
This is the first men's basketball regular-season conference championship for the school since athletics was reinstated in 1991.
Zach Wrightsil broke yet another program record on Sunday. With 13 total rebounds against Talladega, Wrightsil is now No. 1 in program history in rebounds, with a total of 1,009 boards in his Wolf Pack career.
Wrightsil notched his eighth double-double of the season after leading the team with 21 points and 13 rebounds. It's also the 44th double-double of his career.
Five players scored in double figures for Loyola including Wrightsil: Myles Burns (15), Brandon Davis (14), Jalen Galloway (12), and Andrew Fava (11) joined him.
Wrightsil has scored a total of 542 points this season, which is the 10th-most in a single season in Loyola history. He's also grabbed 252 rebounds, 8th-most in a season in program history.
As a team, the Wolf Pack finished 9-of-17 from the three-point line. It's the third time in the past month that Loyola has made at least half of its three-point attempts in a game.
Andrew Fava led the team with three triples Sunday. He also nabbed three steals, and now has 50 on the season, which is the 10th-most in a season in school history.
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