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=8393

Northern Iowa game notes: https://unipanthers.com/documents/2019/ ... df?id=4303

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/8dae2f2e ... thern-iowa

Live stats: https://unipanthers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: Pick 'em

Is this our first conference game that isn't televised? Only available on ESPN+?

My hopes for this game:

-Lucas is back and shuts down AJ Green
-We shoot at least 15 3's and hit 45%+ of them (including one or two from Lucas)
-Krut gets a double-double
-We limit their second chance points
and
-WE WIN

Curious if this will be another game where Bujdoso gets some major minutes as a defensive guy on Green. Will also be interesting to see how they defend the big guy, McDonnel at the 3point line. I am trying to remember but did not think he was that good at taking the ball to the basket. They shot 50% from 3 pt range against us...hitting 11 out of 22......Will be interesting to see how we defend the high pick and roll between Green and McDonnel.
Krutwig had a monster game on 9-12 shooting...and that was the game where he made the important 3 pointer...He will probably be a focus but recently some teams have not doubled him and cut down our number of 3 point attempts. Gut tells me it is gonna be close and low scoring.....Really dont have any more nails to bite so hope UNI collapses under the pressure and my blood pressure doesnt go through the roof.
Is there a scenario where we can wrap up the Valley with a win tonight? Im guessing if Drake and MSU loose and we win?

If we win and both Drake and MSU lose we’d have a one game lead on both. That would clinch a higher seed than Drake, since we swept them, but it would still be possible for MSU to get the 1 seed if they win and we lose this weekend, because they swept us.

A win tonight would be a great present on my 77th birthday.

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Let's go Braden!

Happy birthday!

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Any word on Williamson?!

It’ll definitely be a game time decision

ISU and Mo State a barnburner 6-2 midway through the first half!

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MBB Scholarship Chart