Loyola withstands late Blue Mountain push, improves to 8-2

BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball team won its fourth straight game Thursday night, 86-78 at Blue Mountain Christian. It was the team's second win in conference play, and they improved to 8-2 overall and 2-0 in SSAC action. 

The Wolf Pack will look to keep it rolling on Saturday in a 2 p.m. matchup at Tennessee Southern. 

Loyola never trailed in a dominant first half on Thursday. Kosta Bjelicic scored the first four points of the game himself on back-to-back layups in the first minute. Blue Mountain eventually tied the game at 4-4, but they never managed to take the lead. Dunks from Zachary Lee and Cameron Williams led to the first Topper timeout with less than five minutes played as the Pack led 12-4. 

After the timeout, the three pointers started falling for the Pack. Leonard Jackson came off the bench and quickly hit back-to-back triples around the 11-minute mark, and Eain Mowat joined the party with a three of his own right before the midway point of the half. Bjelicic, Jackson, and Mowat continued to pile on the points over the next five minutes as the Wolf Pack went on a 17-4 run to break the game open. 

Lee capped off the first 20 minutes with a dunk, and Loyola went into the break with a 45-27 advantage, the second-largest halftime lead of the season for the Pack.

Reece Seicshnaydre came out firing after going scoreless in the first half, hitting consecutive treys to stretch the lead past 20 points, 51-30, less than two minutes into the second period. Blue Mountain, however, began to claw their way back into the contest, cutting the deficit by 15 points. Loyola led by just six points, 62-56, right before the 10-minute mark, but a second-chance free throw by Georgios Vassilakis and a big three-pointer from Jackson, his third of the game, put the Pack back ahead by 10. 

The game slowed down over the final eight and a half minutes as Blue Mountain attempted to come back, but the Pack did enough to keep the Toppers at arm's length, sinking 12 free throws down the stretch to seal the win. 

Pack Facts

• Five different players reached double figures in scoring Thursday night, led by Kosta Bjelicic's 19 points (6-9 FG, 7-9 FT). He added six rebounds, three assists, and two blocks. 

• Off the bench, Leonard Jackson was second on the team with a season-high 13 points on an efficient 5-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range. 

• Eain Mowat finished with 12 points off the bench, plus six rebounds and two steals. Mowat and Reece Seicshnaydre each made two shots from long range Thursday. 

• Kameron Johnson reached double digits in scoring for the eighth straight game, finishing with 11 points, a game-high eight assists, four rebounds, and three steals. He went 9-for-10 at the free throw line, with seven of those makes coming over the final 8.5 minutes to help clinch the win. 

• Zachary Lee also had 11 points, marking the eighth time this season he's scored at least 11. 

• Cameron Williams had eight points and tied for a game high with eight rebounds, while Georgios Vassilakis put up six points and seven rebounds. The Wolf Pack once again won the rebounding battle by double digits, 43-28.