Loyola Downs Fairleigh Dickinson Men’s Hoops, 74-63
Marcus Whitaker leads Knights with 16.  

Box Score/Play-by-Play

Teaneck, N.J. – Freshman guard Lucious Jordan (Niskayuna, N.Y.) tallied a double-double with game-highs of 23 points and 11 rebounds as the visiting Loyola College (Md.) Greyhounds defeated host Fairleigh Dickinson in the Knights’ home opener this evening.  Sophomore guard Marcus Whitaker (Trenton, N.J.) scored 16 points to lead the Knights, who fell to 0-5 on the year.  Donovan Thomas (Lauderdale, Fla.) also scored 19 for Loyola, who snapped a 28-game road losing streak and improved to 1-2 on the year.

            For the third straight game the Knights rallied from a double-digit deficit, only to fall short.  With the game knotted at 16-16 midway through the first half, Loyola used a 13-3 run over the next 4:07 to go ahead 29-19.  Fairleigh Dickinson answered with its own run of 11-2 to trim the deficit to 31-30 with 4:12 left in the opening frame.  The teams traded baskets to close out the half with Loyola leading 40-39.  Jackson keyed the first half for the Greyhounds with 15 of his points on 6-of-7 from the field.

            The Knights hung around again in the second half and trailed by only two at 51-49 with 8:18 remaining.  From that point the Greyhounds slowly built another double-digit lead that reached as many as 13 points in the final minute, before the contest closed out at 74-63.

            Fairleigh Dickinson forced 22 Loyola turnovers and shot 33.9 percent from the field.  Loyola hit 49 percent and forced 19 turnovers.

            “We’ve got to keep working hard,” said Knights’ head coach Tom Green.  “There’s no question we’re getting the effort.  We just need to take some higher percentage shots.  We’re getting better at that, but the results just aren’t there yet.”

            Fairleigh Dickinson returns to action on Thursday, November 29^th, when they host Wagner in their Northeast Conference opener at 7:00 p.m.