After a “Dog Fight” in Baltimore, the Retrievers Come Out on Top Over the Greyhounds
The retrievers took the short trip up to Baltimore to take on the greyhounds at Reitz Arena at Loyola-Maryland. The dawgs come into the game as the 8th best 3 point shooting team in the nation based off of three's made per game, averaging almost 11 three's made per game. UMBC will be looking to extend their win streak to 5 and the greyhounds will be looking to snap a 3 game losing streak.
The retrievers jumped out to a quick 10-5 over the greyhounds after baskets inside form Obeng-Mensah while Doles and Lawrence each scoring a 3. The greyhounds then went on a 10-0 run lead by freshman guard Deon Perry, leading to a media timeout.
UMBC are known this season for their electric offense that can score from anywhere on the court but its Loyola beating the Retrievers at their own game after 14 minutes into the first half. The greyhounds started out shooting 4/9 from three and 12-25 from the field overall while the retrievers only managing 3-8 from three and 9-21 overall. Golden Dike has punished UMBC down low with 8 early points with a big slam dunk to put the greyhounds up buy 7 leading to a UMBC timeout to try and regroup as a team.
The Retrievers came out of the timeout and go on a 10-2 run to take a narrow 31-30, making a couple three's one of which coming from Senior guard Jacob Boonyasith. After a media timeout UMBC got a breakaway layup but Loyola answered with a three-point shot on back to back trips down the court to give the greyhounds the lead 36-35. A controversial foul gives UMBC a chance to take the lead before the half but Obeng-Mensah misses the first and makes the second of his free throws to tie the game at 36-36 going into halftime.
Coming out of the half both teams starting out rather slow, each only having one basket through the first 3 minutes of the half. Loyola has done very well dishing the basketball around the whole court but UMBC has reacted well to Loyola movement of the ball and are playing effective defense in order to cause turnovers and prevent made shots.
Dion Brown, freshman guard for UMBC is looking to be the spark to rejuvenate this offense in the second half already at 17 points with a 12 minutes to go in the half. The freshman from Massachusetts is playing in just his second game this season and with many of his teams struggling getting the ball to go through the hoop, he has come off the bench and provided good defense and an offensive outlet that the retrievers need to stay in the game.
After a missed layup by Dike, UMBC worked in quick transition to get it down low to Obeng-Mensah who turned around and hit a hook shoot to put the Retrievers up by 3, 63-60. Next time down the floor Mateo Picarelli came up with a huge three-pointer to but the up by 6 and than converted two free throws on the next possession to extend the lead to 8.
After Loyola cut the lead to 4, UMBC extended it to 6 and UMBC looked to seal up the game at the line with Loyola forced to foul to try and stay in the game.
The Retrievers were able to hold off the greyhounds in the end to win 72-69
[QUICK RECAP] The Retrievers out lasted a very-young Loyola team who were down two starters and relied heavily on younger, more experienced players like freshman guard Tyson Commander, who went to The John Carrol school in Bel Air, MD. He provided good motion to the Greyhounds offense off the bench. The greyhounds had 4 players into double figures but it ultimately wasn't enough to hold off the Retrievers and the breakout performance from Freshman guard Dion Brown who had 21 points off the bench which was much needed for the Retrievers as one of their main scorers Colton Lawrence struggled a lot tonight, shooting just 2-9 from the field. UMBC extends their winning streak to 5 games and look to extend that streak when they welcome William & Mary to the Peake on Sunday at 1:00pm.
