Men’s basketball earns road win at Brewton-Parker

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball team led nearly the entire game at Brewton-Parker on Monday, but they had to fight off a late run by the Barons to earn the 74-72 road win. Loyola returns to The Den on Thursday to host Abraham Baldwin for another Southern States Athletic Conference matchup. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
 

Kameron Johnson and Milan Mejia both made shots to start before BPC took its only lead of the game, 5-4, two and a half minutes into the contest. A Julian Baldwin dunk and 3 by Johnson quickly flipped the lead back to Loyola's side for good. Braelee Albert made two shots and Kosta Bjelicic and Reece Seicshnaydre both scored their first points to help make it a 17-13 lead by the halfway point of the first half. 
 

The Barons kept getting close to regaining the lead, but free throws by Albert and a 3-pointer from Leonard Jackson fought off the push from the hosts, 24-19. Jackson hit another 3 a couple of minutes later, 33-26, and a 3 by Mejia made it a 10-point game, 38-28, with less than two minutes until halftime. The Baton Rouge native added another one from long-range before the first half ended to send the teams into the locker room with Loyola leading by nine, 41-32. 
 

Mejia got into double figures with his third 3-pointer in the opening minutes of the second half, and Albert reached that same milestone with two made shots around Mejia's 3 to make it an 11-point advantage, 48-37. Bjelicic got to double figures a couple of minutes later, and that gave Loyola its largest lead of the game, 56-42, with less than 14 minutes to go. Jackson, who was already in double figures with 10 points in the first half, kept it a 14-point lead a couple of minutes later, but neither team would score that much over the next four minutes to bring the score to 60-46 with 8:30 remaining. 
 

Mejia kept it a 14-point game, 65-41, with six and a half minutes on the clock, but Brewton-Parker started to make one final push at that point. The Barons made it a single-digit deficit, 68-59, at the 4:36 mark, but Mejia answered with another 3-pointer. A 10-0 run trimmed Loyola's lead down to three, 72-69, with 90 seconds left, however, two free throws by Jarvis Brown proved to be the difference. After he hit those two from the charity stripe, BPC hit a 3 with 40 seconds left, but that would be the last points from either team for the rest of the game. 
 

Pack Facts

• Milan Mejia led the Pack with 17 points, knocking down 4-of-8 from behind the arc. 

• Mejia also stole the ball three times, giving him 158 for his career with the Wolf Pack. That's tied for the fourth-most in program history. 

• Kosta Bjelicic was second on the team in scoring with 13 points, grabbing a team-high six rebounds as well.

• Braelee Albert and Leonard Jackson each put in 12 points, giving the Wolf Pack four double-digit scorers. 

• Albert and Kameron Johnson tied for the team high in assists with five each.