Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 6:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Loyola looks to clinch a winning conference record and keep pace with the other two teams tied for first place in the conference when the Ramblers host last-place Evansville on Wednesday night. The Aces beat Loyola soundly Jan. 8 at the Ford Center, issuing a 67-48 smackdown on the Ramblers. Although Evansville currently has only four league wins, three of them have come against the three teams tied for first in the league at the beginning of the week.
The Aces have lost four in a row entering Wednesday’s contest, all but one of them by 12 points or more. The biggest problems for Evansville have been field goal shooting percentage and rebounding, two important categories where the Aces are dead last in the league. On average, the Aces lose the rebounding battle by four boards per game, they rank 344th nationally in offensive rebounding, and their 41.7 field goal percentage is almost 10 percent below Loyola, who leads the league.
Yet when the two teams faced off last time, the Aces held Loyola to 38.4% shooting, won the rebounding battle on the offensive and defensive glass, and shot a season-high 52.9% from the field. Franklin Agunanne was Loyola’s second-leading scorer that night with his career-high 13 points (in only eight minutes of playing time) on 5-for-5 shooting from the field. Marques Townes led Loyola with 14, and Cameron Krutwig had 10. The Ramblers took only seven three-point shots, and hit only one, their lowest total since hitting only one of ten threes against Michigan in their final game of 2017-18.
Evansville starts three guards, top scorer K.J. Riley (a 6’5” junior), second leading scorer Marty Hill, and third leading scorer Shea Feehan (a 6’0” guard from Eureka College). Riley is averaging 13.7 points per game is very aggressive at the hoop. A large part of his game is getting to the foul line. The diminutive Feehan may be familiar to more rabid Loyola fans as the point guard at D-III Eureka, a team Loyola faced three times in the non-con season from 2015-2017. Feehan scored 8, 10, and 17 points against Loyola with Eureka and scored 13 last time out with the Aces; he’s averaging 9.9 at Evansville and leads the team in made threes. Hill is one of the few remaining returning players from last season when he had a season-ending injury after nine games; he’s averaging 10.9 points per game this year, and leads the Aces with a 40.7% shooting percentage from distance.
The starting frontcourt is manned by 6’7” redshirt sophomore forward John Hall and 6’8” sophomore forward Evan Khulman. Hall averages 9.2 points per game and leads the squad in rebounds with 7.3 per game. The tallest starter, Kuhlman, takes more than half his shots from behind the three-point arc. Kuhlman averages 6.8 points and 2.9 rebounds. The three players that see significant time off the bench are 6’4” sophomore guard Noah Freiderking, 5’10” freshman guard Shamar Givance, and 6’9” senior forward Dainius Chatkevicius.
Evansville is 1-5 on the road in conference play, while the Ramblers are 6-1 at home. Loyola is trying to rebound from their first home conference loss in 13 1/2 months. A big crowd should be expected for the second-to-last regular season game.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8373Evansville game notes: https://gopurpleaces.com/documents/2019 ... df?id=6393TV/Streaming video: ESPN +
http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/a45b6af4 ... olachicagoLive stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=234968Vegas odds: Loyola by 11
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