Wednesday, November 27, 2019 10:00 p.m.
John Gray Gymnasium, George Town, Cayman Islands

Probably no one figured Loyola and Old Dominion (a tournament team with 26 wins last season and one of the best teams in CUSA over the past half dozen years) to be playing on Wednesday morning for the right to avoid last place in the 2019 Cayman Islands Classic. A few folks might have pegged these two teams for the championship final match up, but almost no one for last. And yet, here we are!

The Monarchs got off to a pretty good start to the season, shaking off a loss in a close game at UNI in the season opener to soundly defeat St. Joe's and Loyola MD at home before knocking off Northeastern on the road. After a close loss at home to James Madison, ODU entered the Cayman Islands Classic with a 3-2 record, with the two losses coming by a combined seven points.

Not too shabby for a team that graduated its top two scorers and a 7'1" rim protector. Last year's Monarchs were known for defense, ranking 6th in all of college hoops in points allowed per game, and they won most of those close, low-scoring games. But ODU's top two (now graduated) scorers combined for 33.4 points per game, 11.8 rebounds, and 6.5 assists. That's hard to replace.

ODU will likely start 6'6" junior guard/forward Xavier Green, 6'1" junior guard Malik Curry, 6'5" junior guard Marquis Godwin, 6'7" senior forward Aaron Carver and 7' junior forward Dajour Dickens. Green has taken the step up from ODU's third best scorer last season to the team leader, averaging 16.2 points per game on only 38.2% shooting. Malik Curry is the other starter averaging double figures at 11.7; he leads the team in getting to the line, where he shoots 73%.

Jason Wade, a 6'5" sophomore guard, is the main player off the bench and ranks as ODU's second leading scorer with 12.3 ppg. He likes to drive to the basket, and finishes well under the hoop by averaging nearly 66% on his two-point shots. Wade is also a steals machine, compiling 24 thus far on the season.

The Ramblers lost on Tuesday for the fourth time this season, for the third time while shooting over 50% from the field, and for the third time while shooting better than their opponents from the field. After averaging 36.6% from three point territory as a team in 2018-19 and 39.6% from three in 2017-18 (a national ranking 66th and 19th, respectively), Loyola's team three-point shooting percentage now stands at 29.8% (approximately 300th out of the 354 teams in Division I).

Even worse, the Ramblers have allowed opponents to shoot 40.1% from three-point territory, which ranks 330th among the 353 Division I teams. One might expect Loyola to struggle on three-point shooting with last year's leading long-range shooter, Cooper Kaifes, out for the season. But how has the defense against the three fallen apart so badly?


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _27_19.pdf

Old Dominion game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: Flohoops https://www.flohoops.com/signup

Live audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=38&type=Live

Live stats: https://caymanislandsclassic.com/sidear ... ll/summary

Vegas odds: TBA

Paxson starting over Marquise...

Gotta wonder what is going on behind the scenes

Hope Marquise is ok. Good reward for Paxson. He's been playing well.

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I think it is an offense thing. I think he is too ball dominant. They need to work on their spacing and passing.

Agree. It will really help us if Clemons is more of a true point.

Good start today. Great defense. But, the starts haven't been the problem.

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I really hope Pip can find his role on this team because he's so athletic and fun to watch. Great driving reverse layup!

That was a great play. Good look at the three, too. Marquise did a good job getting downhill and found him in the corner.

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Nice to see Pipkens is getting some good time. And from the sounds of it, he's doing really well! If nothing else, this tournament is showing that we have some good depth.

Pip is having his best game by a mile. Looks very comfortable. Love to see us playing tough defense coming off of the losses. It would be easy to pack this game in.

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Up 15. 2.5 min left to play in 1st half I'm hoping they can keep it going during the 2nd half