The Loyola men’s basketball team dropped their second game in a row, losing to Faulkner University 83-62.

The Wolf Pack kept it close early with Faulkner holding a one-point lead with 10:40 left in the first half. However, that quickly changed as Faulkner closed the first half on a 28-9 run to finish the first half with the score of 48-28.

Faulkner kept control of the second half by only allowing Loyola to get the lead down to 13 points before the Eagles got a 20-point advantage. Loyola tried to make a comeback in the second half, but they were outscored 35-34 in the period.

Computer Science junior guard Tre’von Jasmine led the Wolf Pack in scoring with 16 points to go along with five rebounds and two steals.

Senior Guard Lucas Luttrell led the Eagles in scoring with 16 points and made 10 rebounds as well to make it a double-double performance.

The Eagles had contributions from a variety of players having four players in double figures in scoring as opposed to two for the Wolf Pack.

Faulkner proved to have a stifling defense only allowing Loyola to score on 21 of their 56 field goal attempts with a 37.5 percent conversion rate. The Eagles defense showed off their top ranked defense in the Southern States Athletic Conference as they lead the conference in lowest points per game allowed and lowest field goal percentage per game allowed.

Loyola’s usually strong defense did not perform as well with Faulkner shooting 50 percent from the field, which is eight percentage points above Loyola’s 42 percent field goal percentage allowed on the season.

The loss dropped the Wolf Pack down to a 14-11 record and a 10-5 conference record. However, Loyola remains in third place in the conference despite the loss.

The Wolf Pack will return home to play their final two regular season home games in The Den against the top conference seed William Carey University on Thursday Feb. 22 and Blue Mountain College on Saturday Feb. 24.