Loyola wins third straight

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball team ended the regular season on a good note Saturday, defeating William Carey, 75-54, for their third straight win. Loyola (10-17, 9-11 in SSAC) will be the No. 7 seed in next week's Southern States Athletic Conference Championship, which runs Feb. 28 through March 2. 
 

The Wolf Pack began the first half with scores from Alex Hammond and Kameron Johnson to take a 4-0 lead over the Crusaders. After two Crusader buckets made the game close, 6-4, a Jonhson triple put the Pack up by 5, 9-4. Then, the Wolf Pack scored the game's next 11 points to go up 20-4 with 11 minutes left until halftime. During that stretch, Johnson, Hammond, Zachary Lee, and Milan Mejia each scored. 
 

After William Carey managed to cut the Loyola lead to 10, the Pack extended the lead back out to 16 with four free throws from Bralee Albert and a putback from Bradley Alcime. Entering the break, the Wolf Pack led the Crusaders, 32-22.
 

Albert and Leonard Jackson started the scoring for the Pack in the second half. Two makes from Jackson at the charity stripe put the Pack ahead, 38-25, two minutes into the half. With 15 minutes left in the contest, the Crusaders reduced the Wolf Pack lead into the single digits, 42-33. Then, Julian Baldwin started a 12-2 scoring run with a layup with Mejia adding a 3-pointer. Alcime, Albert, and Mejia added scores to complete the run, going up 54-35 with under 12 minutes remaining. 
 

From that point on, each attempt by WCU to come back was met with scoring by Loyola. With five minutes to go, three points from Lee and another Mejia 3-pointer, along with a Jackson free throw extended the Loyola lead out to the largest of the game, 73-52. Senior Eddie Burgess scored the final bucket of the game giving the Wolf Pack a final victory, 75-54.
 

Pack Facts

• Loyola's three-game winning streak is its longest of the season, and all three wins came over teams in the top five in the conference standings. 

• Milan Mejia knocked down three triples, his third game in a row with at least a trio of three-pointers, to lead all scorers with 17 points. Mejia is now the Wolf Pack's leading scorer this season at 13.7 points per game. 

• Mejia, who also had a game-high five steals, has stolen the ball a total of 11 times in two games against William Carey this season. 

• Braelee Albert was second on the Wolf Pack with 12 points, while Kameron Johnson had 11. Zachary Lee was also close to a double-double, putting up nine points and nine rebounds. 

• Overall, it was one of Loyola's best shooting performances of the season, as the team went 29-of-54 from the field for 53.7 percent. 

• Defensively, it was also one of Loyola's best games of the season, as the Crusaders shot just 34.6 percent from the field and the Wolf Pack totaled 14 steals. 

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