(RV) Loyola earns road SSAC win

DALTON, Ga. – The Loyola University New Orleans men's basketball team hit the road for another Southern States Athletic Conference trip, first taking on Dalton State College (Ga.) on Thursday in Dalton, Georgia. The Wolf Pack grabbed a first-half lead and never relinquished it in a 85-77 win over the Roadrunners. 
 

Loyola (16-5, 8-3 in SSAC) is next scheduled to travel to Life University on Saturday at 1 p.m. CST in Marietta, Georgia.
 

The first half started as a defensive battle. Loyola didn't make its first goal until two minutes in, but Dalton State only led 5-4 four minutes into the game. Cameron Williams scored the next four Loyola points, which kept the Roadrunners' lead at one, 9-8, with 13 minutes left. Georgios Vassilakis scored his first points, and Zachary Lee hit a 3 to give the Wolf Pack a 13-9 lead at the halfway point of the first half. 
 

Back-to-back 3s for Leonard Jackson and Reece Seichnaydre put the Pack up 19-15, and four more points from Jackson pushed the advantage to 23-16 with seven and a half left until halftime. Williams stopped a Roadrunners run with another 3-pointer, 26-22, then a combination of Kosta Bjelicic and Lee made it an eight-point game, 30-22, with four minutes on the clock. Dalton State finished the first half well, though, cutting Loyola's lead down to three, 34-31, at the break. 
 

Williams scored the first five points for the Pack, then Kameron Johnson scored his first points of the second half, 41-25. Dalton State kept making shots to get within three or four, but Seicshnaydre and Jaylen Peters each score a couple to make the lead 46-41 seven minutes into the new half. 
 

Johnson started the heat up with 10 points in five game minutes, including two 3-pointers, and Leonard Jackson hit another 3 to help extend the advantage to 10, 61-51, with 7:33 left to play. A Vassilakis old-fashioned 3-point play and two more made shots gave Loyola its largest of the game, 68-55, with 4:50 on the clock. 
 

Dalton State scored the next eight straight points in less than a minute to attempt a comeback, 68-63, but Lee ended that run with a dunk. After that, the Wolf Pack's last 15 points came from the free throw line. Behind seven points from Johnson and six more by Jackson, the Pack went 15-for-18 from the charity stripe to close out the win. 
 

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