If the Oct. 30 game against Carver Bible College was any indication of how the season might turnout for the men’s basketball team, Michael Giorlando has nothing to worry about.
The Wolfpack opened up the 2009-2010 season in the Den with a 111-54 victory over the Cougars. This was the second consecutive season Loyola defeated Carver by at least 50 points in the season opener.
According to Ryan Brock, business management junior, the Wolfpack’s stingy defense set the tone for the game allowing them to score at ease.
“Before the game, coach stressed pressuring the ball,” said Brock, who scored 24 points, “Our defense lead to our offense in this game because we pressured the ball so much, which caused us to get the easy lay-ups.”
Brock led the Wolfpack with a team-high 24 points while Sean Bennett, business management senior, added 21 points on seven for 12 shooting. Loyola also had two other players in double figures including Chris Joseph, political science sophomore, and Corey Gray, biology studies sophomore, who both scored 13 points a piece off the bench.
Although the outcome of the game was similar to last season’s win, Torry Beaulieu, history senior, and Bennett said their expectations for this season are a little different.
“Our expectations of ourselves, we’re going 29-0 this season,” Bennett said with a laugh. “I remember my freshman year we were talking about our goals of being on the top half of the conference and we were 5-25 I think. But it’s so different now, and we expect to win every game. There’s no game we’re going into thinking we can’t win,” he said.
Brock opened up the game scoring the first two points in the first half, followed by Carver guard Nicholas Hood answering with a mid range shot of his own. Bennett answered back with a 3-pointer from downtown. A few plays later, the Cougars put together a five-point run, but couldn’t grab the momentum allowing the Wolfpack to take a 36-16 lead with eight minutes left in the half.
The second half was smooth sailing as the Wolfpack pushed its lead to 59 points before capturing its first victory of the season. Loyola shot 59 percent from the field on the night. Giorlando, head basketball coach, attributed his team’s performance to the off-season workouts each player went through to prepare for the season.
“It’s been a process since the spring time,” said Giorlando. “When we finished the season, the guys got in the weight room and worked on individual skills all through the summer. We’ve just continued on and we have to keep improving.”
The Wolfpack take on Wesley College next in The Den on Nov. 6.
Alex Esquilin can be reached at [email protected]
