Loyola earns win No. 21 Thursday

NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans men's basketball team remains in the hunt for at least a share of the Southern States Athletic Conference regular-season crown, defeating Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.) by 30, 96-66, Thursday night in The Den. The Wolf Pack (21-6, 13-4 in SSAC) is one game back from William Carey and Faulkner in the standings with one game left. 
 

Loyola will close out the regular season with a home matchup against Tennessee Southern at 2 p.m. on Saturday for Senior Day. 
 

Kameron Johnson scored Loyola's first seven points of the game to get the Wolf Pack off to a good start, 7-3, and Leonard Jackson hit a 3-pointer moments later, 11-3. BMCU battled back to get within one, 15-14, but the Wolf Pack used a 16-2 run to take control of the game, 31-16, near the 10-minute mark. Reece Seicshnaydre made three 3s during that stretch, and he quickly added a fourth, 34-18. 
 

The two teams went a couple of minutes scoreless, then Kosta Bjelicic ended the drought before Johnson hit another 3-pointer, 39-21, with seven minutes until halftime. It was a back-and-forth end to the first half, as Johnson finished with 14 first-half points. Zachary Lee, Jaylen Peters, Bjelicic and Jackson all contributed to the points column down the stretch as Loyola went into the break with a 52-34 lead. 
 

Johnson picked up where he left off early in the second half, laying up two points to start the scoring for the Pack. He then followed a Bjelicic layup with back-to-back triples to stretch the Wolf Pack lead to 62-39 by the 15-minute mark. Loyola then went the next five minutes with no field goals but stayed out in front by a healthy margin with free throws from Bjelicic, Lee, and Johnson. 
 

Blue Mountain hung around in the second half for a while, cutting the Loyola advantage to 16 points at 75-59, with eight minutes to go. Then a massive 14-0 scoring run by the Pack put the game away for good, with Georgios Vassilakis, Bjelicic, Johnson, Jackson, and Peters all contributing in the stretch. A late trey by Dominic Brown and a tough bucket on an and-one attempt by Apostolos Paziotopoulos kept the lead at 30 points as time expired. 

Pack Facts

• Kameron Johnson filled up the box score with a game-high 27 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, and two steals. 

• It was Johnson's ninth game this season hitting at least the 25-point mark in a game, and it was his fourth time scoring 25 or more. This was also Johnson's 14th straight game in double figures. 

• Kosta Bjelicic put up 16 points and 11 rebounds, his third double-double of the season, while shooting a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line. 

• Reece Seicshnaydre sank his first four three-point attempts, good for 12 points in the game and matching Johnson for a game high.

• Jaylen Peters went 4-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 at the line for 12 points in just 14 minutes. It was his second-highest scoring game of the season.  

• Leonard Jackson hit a late three to get him to 11 points. That marks 19 games in a row in double figures for Jackson. 

• Off the bench, Georgios Vassilakis put up eight points and five rebounds in just 13 minutes, going 2-for-3 from the field and 4-of-4 at the line.