The maroon and gold of Loyola won big in the Windy City at the Gentile Center – but it was the Ramblers of Chicago, not the Wolfpack of New Orleans that registered the 76-42 win Saturday afternoon.
Loyola-Chicago’s marquee point guard Blake Schilb’s height and athleticism proved too much for coach Michael Giorlando to cope with – able to guard the ‘Pack’s tallest players (Faranda, Tuszynski, Wurts) and post up on an overmatched Wolfpack backcourt, hedictated the flow of the showdown.
Schilb could only tally 8 points against the Wolfpack, but the Ramblers distributed their scoring well to make up the slack.
“It’s part of their offensive strategy for them to post Schilb on every defender, and we were ready for that,” Giorlando said. “I thought we did a good job on him, but when the defense is keyed into one player, other players can step up and score.”
Loyola-Chicago forced 25 turnovers on their New Orleans counterparts.
“The difference in the game was their pressure on the ball and their quickness on our off-the-ball screens,” Giorlando said. “Twenty-five turnovers will make it difficult to compete with anyone, and the fact that we held them to the 70s with 25 turnovers, we were playing pretty hard.
“It sounds crazy, but we were,” he added.
They also held the free-wheeling scoring of psychology junior guard Luke Zumo in check in the first half. Coming off a career-high 29 points in a loss against Arkansas-Monticello, Zumo fell into foul trouble early and could only manage three points to start.
Zumo still finished with a game-high 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field. He hit three-of-seven 3-pointers. He was the only scorer for the ‘Pack in double figures.
General business freshman forward Nick Tuszynski, the team’s leading rebounder, amassed six boards to pace the ‘Pack.
J.R. Blount led the Windy City squad with 13 points on a surgical six-of-seven shooting night. Andy Polka (nine points), Brandon Woods (eight points) and Majak Kou (seven points) all effectively damaged Loyola-New Orleans.
The Wolfpack held the Ramblers scoreless for four minutes in the second half. Accounting senior James Bunn (9 points) also forced Schilb into four fouls within that stretch to bench him for most of the rest of the game.
NOTES:
The Ramblers took the floor decked out in 1950s throwback jerseys. They auctioned them off at the conclusion of the game to aid the Loyola University New Orleans Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
Loyola-Chicago also honored their 1950s “All Decade” team, including Rambler greats Ed Earle, Don Hanrahan, Jack Carpenter and Ralph Klaerich.
