On the opening night of their 2024-25 campaign, Loyola’s men’s basketball team defeated the Southern University of New Orleans Knights 89-71 in the Den.
“It feels great to start the season with a victory,” head coach Donald Reyes said after the game. “Winning is hard, and we never take that for granted. I think we have a really deep team and honestly, I have some work to do to figure out the best course of action in order for this team to be successful this year.”
The Wolf Pack opened another season with a home victory after winning an exhibition against John Melvin University to start last season.
Both schools matched up with one another early last season in a contest that saw the Wolf Pack earn a 69-65 victory over the Knights
The festivities began with the raising of the Southern States Athletic Conference Championship banner, which the team earned last season after winning their third tournament championship in a row.
The Wolf Pack became the first team in conference history to win four tournament games in four days after entering the tournament ranked seventh out of the eight teams participating.
Junior guard Alex Hammond led the team in scoring on the night, finishing with 17 points and seven assists, and redshirt junior guard Leonard Jackson III and redshirt sophomore Zachary Lee added 13 points apiece.
The Wolf Pack were able to hold off any potential comeback from the Knights and led the entire second half after taking a four point lead into the halftime break and holding SUNO scoreless for the last two and a half minutes of the game.
“In the first half we took a lot of threes early in the shot clock, but in the second half we did a much better job of getting in the paint and I think that made the difference tonight,” Reyes said. “We shot like 36 percent from the field in the first half, but went up to 50 percent in the second half because we were able to create more paint touches and generate kick outs to the wing for easier baskets.”
The team also capitalized on 20 Knight turnovers and generated 25 points off of them along with dominating their opponents in second chance points, outscoring them 20-9 to help secure the victory.
Loyola will be back in action on Oct. 29, when they travel to Baton Rouge to face Division One opponents Louisiana State University in an exhibition match in the first of six games away from home.
“LSU is my alma mater, but on Tuesday night, we are enemies,” Reyes said. “We know that on any given night, anybody can be beat, so our job is to go out there and play to the best of our abilities, and whatever the outcome, we’ll be happy because we know we’re going to bring forth our best effort.”
The Pack returns to the Den on Nov. 18 as part of a doubleheader with the women’s team against local rivals Xavier University of Louisiana that starts at 5:30 p.m.
