Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
McLeod Center, Cedar Falls, Iowa
Loyola faces one of the hottest teams in the league yet again, Northern Iowa, on Wednesday night in Cedar Falls. UNI has won their last four games in a row, each by double digits. They’ve won six of their last nine games, including a sweep over Missouri State. One of their losses in that span was by a single point in a mid-week polar vortex contest in Chicago. Another was by five points at league-leader Drake.
Meanwhile, the Ramblers have stumbled from a 2-game lead in the conference race to a three-way tie with Missouri State and Drake at 10-6. Lurking just behind are the surging Panthers at 9-7. The Ramblers are 0-3 in midweek conference road games, having lost embarrassingly at Evansville (by 19 points) and Missouri State (by 35 points) before losing less flamboyantly at Bradley (by only 7 points). Loyola has lost four of their last five conference road games, and have dropped to 5-5 in their last 10 games overall.
UNI took a while before they found their offense this season, and now their defense has become fearsome and stingy. Over the past four games UNI has given up an average of only 54.5 points per game, controlling the game tempo, and limiting their opponents to 38.5% shooting from the field and 26.3% from three-point range.
UNI starts flashy 6’4” freshman AJ Green at point guard, 6’5” sophomore Trae Berhow (a transfer from Pepperdine, 6’2” senior Wyatt Lohaus, and 6’7” junior Isaiah Brown as guards, and 6’9” junior Luke McDonnel as the big man. Green gets a touch almost every time down the court as the team’s leader in scoring (15.5 ppg), assists (60), three pointers made (62), and free throw percentage (85.7%). He has the second-highest usage rate of any player in the MVC (after Malik Yarbrough) and he is 42nd in the nation in the category—exceptional for a freshman.
Berhow and McDonnell are UNI’s leading rebounderers at 6.2 and 4.3 respectively. McDonnell is a deceptively good three-point shooter, making 42.4% of his shots from distance. Sophomore guard Tywhon Pickford has returned from an injury in mid-February, and joins senior guard Spencer Haledman and 7-footer Justin Dahl as the main players off the bench. Six-one sharpshooter Haledeman and big man Dahl have been particularly effective against the Ramblers in the recent past; the two combined for 15 points off the bench against Loyola in January.
The Ramblers hope that dynamic guard Lucas Williamson will be able to return from a broken hand sustained in the game against Nevada and re-injured in the road game at Indiana State. Loyola is 3-0 in conference games this season when Williamson was a starter. Besides being Loyola’s best defender, Williamson averaged 8.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Those are numbers that haven’t been replaced by the players who have divvied up his 29 minutes per game.
Loyola is 2-6 all time in Cedar Falls.
Loyola game notes:
https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8393Northern Iowa game notes:
https://unipanthers.com/documents/2019/ ... df?id=4303TV/Streaming video: ESPN +
http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/8dae2f2e ... thern-iowaLive stats:
https://unipanthers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: Pick 'em