Men’s basketball advances to SSAC Championship title game

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball team took down another Top 3 seed on Friday, defeating No. 3 seed Life University, 69-66, in the semifinal round of the Southern States Athletic Conference Championship. No. 7 seed Loyola will now play the winner of top-seeded UT Southern and No. 5 Mobile at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday inside Montgomery's Multiplex at Cramton Bowl. 
 

Loyola is the first seventh-seeded team to advance to the Championship's title game since Middle Georgia did so in 2019. The Wolf Pack ended MGA's run that year to win the program's first tournament title. 
 

Braelee Albert and Alex Hammond started the game with a pair of 3s, and a Milan Mejia steal led to an easy score by Zachary Lee to give Loyola a quick 8-0 lead. Hammond scored again, then the sophomore collected two steals that led to scores by Mejia and Lee, extending the lead to 14-1 after four minutes of play. After the Running Eagles made it a 16-8 game, Julian Baldwin and Bradley Alcime scored on back-to-back possessions, 20-8, then Leonard Jackson and Troy Thomas both scored their first points to make it a 25-10 game halfway through the first half. 
 

Life cut it to seven two minutes later, but back-to-back tough scores by Baldwin and Albert held the Running Eagles off a little, 29-18. Consecutive 3s, though, made it a five-point game, 29-24, with four and a half minutes until halftime. Hammond came out of the media timeout and put back his own miss, and he followed that up with a jumper from the free throw line to give Loyola a spark, 33-24, with less than three minutes on the clock. Life would close the first half by scoring the final five points to make it a 33-29 score at the break. 
 

The two teams went back and forth to start the second half, as Baldwin scored five early points to bring the score to a 40-35 Wolf Pack after four minutes of play. Baldwin scored again, but Life cut it to three, 42-39, a couple of minutes later. After Brody Adams scored his first points, the Running Eagles, again, made it a three-point game, 44-41, with a pair of free throws, then they cut it to three again, 46-43, after two Lee free throws. That trend continued when Lee scored again, as the score read 48-45 in Loyola's favor with 10 minutes to play. 
 

Again, Life answered every shot over the next couple of minutes. A Mejia steal that led to a score by Kameron Johnson was met with a Life score, 50-47, and a jumper by Alcime was answered with another score by the opposition, 52-49, with 8:26 left. The Running Eagles, however, tied the game, 52-52, after a missed shot by Loyola. Mejia responded to that with a 3-pointer, and Jackson scored after an offensive rebound, but a 3 by Life tied it again, 57-57, with 6:30 left. Johnson broke that tie, 59-57, as Loyola shot 6-for-10 from the floor over a five-minute span. 
 

With a little more than four minutes remaining, Life tied it for the third time, 61-61, but a combination of Lee, Albert and Hammond pushed Loyola's lead to 67-62 with two-plus minutes left. Life scored four straight points, including one with 10 seconds left, 67-66, then two free throws by Mejia put Loyola back up three with 6.7 seconds left. The Running Eagles proceeded to lose the ball out of bounds to put Loyola in position for the win. 
 

Pack Facts

• This will be Loyola's third straight season playing in the SSAC title game. 

• Loyola's nine-game winning streak at the SSAC Championship is a tournament record. 

• With the win against Life, Loyola has now won games against all of the top-five seeded teams in the SSAC Championship within the last 13 days. 

• The Wolf Pack took care of the ball on Friday, committing only four turnovers for the entire game. That's the fewest turnovers in a game for the Pack in almost 10 years, as Loyola last had four turnovers against Spring Hill on December 17, 2014. 

• Julian Baldwin put in work for the second day in a row, putting up 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting plus eight rebounds. Both were team highs in the semifinal. 

• Zachary Lee had 12 points for the pack, while Alex Hammond scored 11 with four assists. 

• Braelee Albert also dished out four assists, adding seven points, seven rebounds, and a block. 

• Hammond, Milan Mejia, and Leonard Jackson each had two steals on Friday. 

• Mejia, who hit one three-pointer in the second half, is now at 185 triples in his career. That moves him into eighth on Loyola's all-time three-pointers list. 

2024 SSAC Men's Basketball Championship Schedule

Wednesday, February 28
Game 1, 10:45 a.m. | #7 Loyola def. #10 Middle Georgia, 65-58
Game 2, 2:15 p.m. | #8 Thomas def. #9 Faulkner, 74-58
 

Thursday, February 29
Game 3, 10:45 a.m. | #3 Life def. #6 Dalton State, 81-76
Game 4, 2:15 p.m. | #7 Loyola vs. #2 Stillman, 79-76
Game 5, 6:15, p.m. | #1 UT Southern def. #8 Thomas, 77-64
Game 6, 9:45 p.m. | #5 Mobile def. #4 William Carey 85-68
 

Friday, March 1
Game 7, 3:00 p.m. | #7 Loyola def. #7 Loyola, 69-66
Game 8, 7:00 p.m. | #1 UT Southern def. #5 Mobile, 70-54
 

Saturday, March 2
Championship Game, 6:30 p.m. | #7 Loyola vs. #1 UT Southern