Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/3/ ... ament.aspx

Saint Louis Stats and Intel - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2025.html

Record: 18-13 (11-7, 5th in A-10 MBB)
Coach: Josh Schertz
PS/G: 74.3 (161st of 364)
PA/G: 70.1 (121st of 364)
SRS: 4.57 (108th of 364)
SOS: 2.60 (100th of 364)
ORtg: 107.9 (167th of 364)
DRtg: 101.8 (104th of 364)


Atlantic 10 Tournament Quarterfinal - Loyola Chicago Ramblers (21-10, 12-6) vs. Saint Louis Billikens (18-13, 11-7) – 1:00pm CST Capital One Arena, Washington DC

Rivals reunite for round-3, this time in the A10 quarterfinals. The winner advances, loser goes home.

Saint Louis and Loyola Chicago split the season series 1-1. Last time these two met was March 1st. Saint Louis clobbered the Ramblers 98-67 in what was the most forgettable of forgettable games. The Ramblers got smoked, with nothing going their way in that one but Miles Rubin’s strong offensive game. Officiating was against them from the opening tip, while SLU couldn’t miss. SLU shot a ridiculous 71% from the field and hit 52% of its threes (18-34). In that one, Gibson Jimerson (33pts) and Robbie Avila (28pts) together nearly outscored the Ramblers by themselves.

SLU finished the regular season at 18-13 overall with an 11-7 record in A-10 play. Throughout the year, they relied heavily on their big-three (Jimerson, Avila, Swope), and ran their starters to exhaustion. The Billikens are the top shooting team in the conference, averaging 47.5 percent from the field, which is 45th best in the nation. They're also top 20 in effective field goal percentage (.563).

Saint Louis advances to the quarterfinal after defeating Davidson 83-75. The Billikens controlled this game from the tipoff, but was much closer than score indicated, and got big games from their senior leaders. Isaiah Swope led with 26 points while Gibson Jimerson poured in 25 points and Robbie Avila finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Saint Louis got rare production from their bench finally, as Amari McCottry scored 15 points in 19 minutes. The Billikens shot 56.9% from the field and 42.9% from three while Davidson shot 43.9% from the field and 34.4% from three. Saint Louis also shot 20 free throws compared to just six for Davidson.

The Ramblers ended the 2024-25 season hot, going 9-2 from February 1st to present, which included winning streaks of 5 straight and now entering the A10 tournament on 2. They earned the 4th seed after last weekend’s dominant victory at UMass.

Loyola Chicago averaged 71.9 PPG on 45.5% shooting from the field (third in the Atlantic 10), and 36.7% from three (first in the Atlantic 10). Loyola Chicago finished fourth in the Atlantic 10 in three-pointers made per game but shot just 67.8% from the free-throw line. The Ramblers were third in assist/turnover ratio and first in assists per game. Defensively, Loyola Chicago slipped in some losses, giving up 70.8 PPG and allowing opponents to shoot 42.2% from the field and 33.2% from three. The Ramblers finished third in blocks per game.

Despite Loyola entering as -2 favorites, I expect this game to be close and no way do we see any resemblance of the March 1st game. Depending which officials this matchup draws, it is only worrisome if the officiating cracks down on our defensive schemes like they did in that game and a handful of others.

Saint Louis has the advantage here unfortunately, that they’ve already played 1 tournament game, and that carries A LOT of momentum (note - every double bye team in 2024 tournament lost in the QF). They shot the lights out vs Davidson, knocking down 12 threes and shooting nearly 57% from the field. The Billikens scoring trio of Swope, Avila, and Jimerson (2/3rds of them in each game) has produced numbers against the Ramblers and their ability to score on all three levels makes it tough for all opponents to contain.

Both Loyola and SLU are in the top four in the Atlantic 10 in three-pointers made per game and it could be raining threes on Friday afternoon.

For Round-3, we look forward to another juicy Rubin/Avila matchup… Hope that Jimerson doesn’t shoot us out of DC… The officiating must call it fairly and allow us to play tight and physical defense…. Our quartet of seniors must extend their college careers with W’s.

The Ramblers must do all that’s necessary here to survive and advance, and redeem themselves from last year’s excruciatingly painful collapse in the quarterfinal.


SLU Probable Starters – 6-8 F Kalu Anya, 6-10 C Robbie Avila, 6-5 G Gibson Jimerson, 6-3 G Kobe Johnson, 5-10 G Isaiah Swope.

Loyola Probable Starters – Watson, Dawson, Edwards Jr., Houinsou, Rubin


LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS
N/A


Watch / Listen – Friday afternoon’s Quarterfunal game is nationally televised on USA Network with Steve Schlanger and Tim McCormick on the call, and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network with our friends Sudikoff and CT.

Postgame Show - Tune in to Sudikoff on RSN, followed by TalkinBlers Spaces on the X: https://x.com/blerstalking?s=21


Odds: Loyola -2 (as of 9:00pm 3/13)

Valentine learned a hard lesson last year and now knows how to use the double bye as his advantage. SLU will have tire legs in the second half and Loyola will pull this one out by double digits.

Rare to get a chance to avenge an embarrassing 30 point loss so soon. We have that now. And the chance to end SLU's season and carry ours on. Let's do it.

I wonder if Schertz is going to use the same strategy as a few weeks ago--force feed Avila to attack Miles and get him into foul trouble. Set pick after pick on the arc for Jimmerson to get open looks. Let's see what we learned from that game...

Good first half! Grateful for the radio broadcast.

Just grateful they got their first tournament win in the A10

Good game

Jimerson's second half:

20 minutes
0-1 FG
0 points
2 rebounds

Quite an adjustment from two weeks ago.

Not sure why Warlick played so much over Anya in the second half, but I'll also take that.

Props to the coaching staff for learning from our last outing vs SLU. We attacked them differently and it paid off. Minimized the open looks and focused on stopping Avila and Gibson. Seemed like we decided that one of their big 3 would "get his" and we just locked down the other two. Helped that Avila looks gassed--he isn't build to play back-to-back days.

Loved the attitude and playmaking from Des. Drew seemed to take it personally that Des wasn't anywhere on the all-conference teams, which is a legit gripe. He 100% deserved it. Absolutely balled out today.

Deloach had a really good game too. His athleticism frustrated Robbie.

On to VCU. We played them tough for 30ish minutes in Chicago before collapsing. They are the best team in the A10. But they are beatable. Dayton beat them @VCU just last week. Excited to be playing on semifinal Saturday!

good job in a game they should have won

big step up in competition tomorrow

Played well as a team today
Yes, like it has been mentioned, our first A10 tournament win!!!

5 Ramblers with 8 or more points, Des leading the pack at 25
Rebounds of note as we won both the Offensive and Defensive boards
Kept TOs to under 10 (9) and our Pts off Tos 13 to SLU’s 5
Houinsou and DeLoach 8 and 9 pts in the paint respectively, Houinsou big with 10 RBs
We are going to need these 2 producing in the paint!

Miles with only 2 fouls so he was in for 28 minutes! I like that.

A lot of good little things need to keep happening for our Ramblers to continue. So fingers crossed, as we will have our work cut out for us with VCU.

Let’s go Ramblers!!

Let's see how Ragas handles the quick turnaround!

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