Saturday, November 25, 2017 4:00 p.m.
Savannah Civic Center, Savannah, Ga.

Loyola and Kent State have faced each other six times through their history, with the Ramblers winning four of the six. Last year, Kent State won the Mid American Conference Tournament as a sixth seed and lost to UCLA in the first round as a 14 seed, finishing the year 22-14 overall. Coach Rob Senderoff is in his sixth season at Kent State, and has compiled a 125-82 record, which includes four 20-win seasons, three trips to the CIT and one NCAA tournament appearance.

The last time Loyola faced the Golden Flashes, it was in Kent, early in the 2014-15 season. Loyola was wary of then-sophomore Jimmy Hall, who was tearing up the league. It was Hall, in his senior season, who put the team on his back last year in the MAC tourney that got them to The Big Dance.

Without Hall, KSU is in rebuild mode. Eleven of the 16 players on the roster made a stop somewhere else between high school and KSU. They beat Youngstown State (picked last for the HL) and Ohio Christian convincingly, then struggled to beat Mississippi Valley State. But in their last game before the trip to Savannah, they lost to Southeastern Louisiana.

This year’s Kent State team runs with an inside-outside compo of 6’1” junior guard Jaylin Walker and 7’0” junior center Adonis De La Rosa. Walker, who comes to KSU from Romulus High School in the Detroit suburbs, averages 19.5 points per game and shoots nearly 53% from the field. He shoots a lot—53 field goal attempts and 14 trips to the line accounts for 24% of the teams offense, and he also has 12 assists.

De La Rosa was a big-time prospect from the Bronx who originally signed with St. John’s but played his first year at Williston State College in North Dakota. Last year with the Golden Flashes he appeared in all the games as a sub, but this year as a starter he’s averaging 14.0 points and 9.0 rebounds while hitting on 68% of his field goal attempts. He’s always been good at establishing position—he took about 25 charges last season—and this year he’s getting to the line a lot, 23 attempts, and hitting on 87%.

Rounding out the starting lineup are 6’7” freshman forward BJ Duling, 6’0” junior point guard Jalen Avery, and 6’2” senior guard Kevin Zabo. Duling averages 7.0 points and 4.3 rebounds, shooting just under 38% on field goals. Avery is a pass-first point guard who has an astonishing 22 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, but struggles with shooting percentage—he averages 7.0 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting under 35% from the field. Zabo has recently replaced senior Mitch Peterson in the starting lineup—he averages 7.0 points per game and plays aggressively enough to share the team lead in personal fouls.

Danny Pippen, a 6’9” sophomore forward, plays only 14 minutes a game off the bench but is KSU’s third leading scorer at 9.3 points per game to go with 5.0 rebounds. Six-three senior guard Desmond Ridenour also comes off the bench for about 20 minutes per game and averages 7.8 points and 3.8 boards. Six-nine juco newcomer Akiean Frederick plays about 15 minutes, averaging 5.5 points and 4.0 boards.

Valpo successfully contained Jaylin Walker (15 points on 5 of 17 shooting, three assists and three turnovers in 37 minutes) and Adonis De La Rosa (10 points, 7 rebounds in 22 minutes with four fouls). Still, the 77-67 win for Valpo looks more comfortable than it really was for Valpo, who scored nine unanswered points in the final :30.

The Ramblers broke out to a big lead early in the second half of their convincing 102-78 win over UNCW, which allowed many of the LU starters to play very manageable minutes on the front end of two games on consecutive days. Loyola probably won’t shoot 60% from the field twice in two consecutive days, but if the Rambler defense is anything like it was in the first 10 minutes of the second half against UNCW, just shooting 45% should be good enough.


Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/documents ... df?id=3739

Kent State game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: None

Streaming audio: https://www.iheart.com/live/640-whlo-3520/

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=199089

Vegas odds: Loyola by 5.5

Loyola has to be wary of a 3 point shooter for Kent State,by the name of Peterson.Kent State is quick.Yes,it was a 1 point game against Valpo with about a minute and a half to go and then Valpo pulled away.Yes,DeLa Rosa will be hard to contain with his height and ability.
I look for Krutwig to hold his own against the big guy.
Quite a few Loyola fans at the game tonight,including Bill Clark,finishing his 3 rd year of med school in South Carolina.Also attending the same school is Ben Averkamp and Joe Crisman.All 3 play on the same intramural team.

I was at that game in 2014-- Was with my grand-daughter Jessica's husband Ben==visiting from DC--He is a rabid Hoops fan--Terrapin rooter In any case Kent was kind enough to seat us in first row--three feet behind LUC bench. Got an earful of PM coaching throughout the game. I developed great respect for him as of that night.

We won it !! YAY !!

I look for our guys to win tomorrow as we have too many guns !!

JCT...thanks for the previews.....well done ..appreciate the work

We appear to be 5.5 point favorites !!! I see another big win !! Tou think ???

Looks like Mitch Peterson is back in the starting lineup with today's game.

Poor shooting on both sides to start. I wonder if it’s a case of tired legs. This is the first time we’ve played on consecutive days this year.

This one sure isn't coming easy!

Gotta like that run to end the half!

Man, if we were better rebounders and could limit our turnovers, we could be a really, really good team. I don't know how much coaching can improve those areas during the course of a season.

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