IU Northwest
Sunday, November 13, 2016 2:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Eureka College
Monday, November 14, 2016 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
After looking a little unsure through the first 2/3 of their season opener on Friday night against Alcorn State, the Ramblers turned up the defense to spark their offense in a 69-44 win. Loyola’s newcomers will have plenty of opportunity to get tuned up for the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands next weekend with games against NAIA and Division III foes on Sunday and Monday.
IU Northwest likes to play up tempo hoops, but they aren’t really great at it. In four games so far this season, they average 86.3 points per game and have yet to be held under 76 points in a game. The bad news, and the reason they’re only 1-3 on the season, is their opponents are averaging 87 points a game.
The RedHawks are built for speed and ball handling. Their top scorers– senior Darius Davis, junior Ronald Alexander, junior Vince Gooden, and freshman Jovan Jackson —are all guards between 6’1” and 6’3”. They only have five players listed as forwards on their entire 15-player roster, and only three players listed as taller than 6’4”. So expect the challenge for the Ramblers to be controlling the tempo and preventing the runnin’ RedHawks from fast break opportunities.
The Eureka College Red Devils have only played one contest thus far, an exhibition against Eastern Illinois, which resulted in a dismal drubbing by the score of 94-58. Eureka Coach Chip Wilde started 6’0” Lewis transfer Shea Feehan, 5’10” Ryan McElmurry, and 5’10” Hank Thomas at the guard spots against Eastern Illinois; 6’5” senior Parker Gibson and 6’4” sophomore Alex Wiegand started in the frontcourt. Only Feehan ( a team leading 16 points) and Thomas (13) scored in double digits for the Red Devils as EIU out-rebounded tiny Eureka 51-25 and held Eureka to 32.1% shooting.
Last year, Loyola beat Eureka 84-51, which allowed many bench players and walk-ons to get some playing time after led 44-18 at halftime. Eureka is about half way between Bloomington-Normal and Peoria. As many people know, was the alma mater of Ronald Reagan and located in the home town of Chicago Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist. There are nine freshmen and four sophomores from Central Illinois on Eureka’s roster, so many of Eureka’s players are probably well acquainted with Loyola’s Matt Chastain and Jake Baughman.
Loyola’s game on Sunday will be broadcast on 88.7 FM WLUW, returning Loyola to the radio airwaves after a long absence. I recently downloaded the free WLUW app for my android phone, and the app provides a great one-click option to listen live to WLUW with excellent sound quality away from a radio or outside the station’s signal reach. It would be nice if Loyola fans could support the broadcasts, because it would help justify having the games on WLUW. I highly recommend this app!
Links
Game discussion at Ramblermania
Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m- … 16aab.html
TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 IU-Northwest (http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i … olachicago)
ESPN3 Eureka (http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i … olachicago)
Radio for IU Northwest: WLUW 88.7 (http://wluw.org)
