WASHINGTON – As part of a road doubleheader, the American University men's basketball team will play at Loyola Maryland on Monday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. The Eagles' game against the Greyhounds, which will air on CBS Sports Network, will follow a 4 p.m. AU women's game at Loyola. On the men's side, both teams are coming off Saturday victories at home.
Quick Info
- Date/Time: Monday, January 13; 7 pm
- Site: Baltimore, Md. (Reitz Arena)
- Series History: AU leads, 54-52
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Talent: Jason Knapp, Mo Cassara
Records Watch
- Senior Elijah Stephens scored seven points in the Eagles' win over Bucknell on Saturday, and became the 35th member of the 1,000-point club for AU men's basketball. Stephens now has 1,006 career points.
- In the midst of his career-high 33-point effort against UMBC, grad student Matt Rogers moved into 10th place all-time on AU's career scoring list after starting the game in 13th place. With two more 20-point games since then, Rogers has vaulted into eighth place all-time with 1,548 points.
- Rogers has 662 rebounds, which ranks him 20th all-time. He was the 15th player in AU history to reach 1,000 points and 500 rebounds, but is now only the sixth player all-time to hit 1,500 points and 500 rebounds.
- With 614 career field goals made, Rogers ranks seventh all-time, while his career field-goal percentage of .548 is tied for fifth.
Inside the Series
- This is the 107th meeting between American and Loyola Maryland, with American narrowly leading the series, 54-52.
- American has dropped two of the last three contests, including a very low-scoring, 44-43 defeat at home on Feb. 7, 2024 in the second game of last year's regular-season series.
- The Eagles did beat the Greyhounds in last year's meeting on the road, 66-52, led by a game-high 17 points from Elijah Stephens.
- American boasts a 29-13 record in home contests against the Greyhounds, but trails 36-25 in Baltimore.
What to Know About American
- On Saturday, American came back from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat Bucknell at home, 68-58. The Eagles improved to 5-1 at home, but still have yet to earn a true road win this season. The Patriot League is proving difficult for road wins, as home teams stand at 19-1 so far.
- Graduate student Matt Rogers, the Patriot League's Preseason Player of the Year, dropped a career-high 33 points vs. UMBC on Dec. 29 and has now reached the 20-point mark in back-to-back games at BU (22 points) and vs. Bucknell (20 points). Rogers now ranks eighth all-time in career scoring at American with 1,548 points, and is one of just six players in program history with both 1,500 points and 500 rebounds.
- AU snapped a four-game losing streak with a 75-64 victory over Holy Cross on Jan. 5, a team that had come in on a four-game win streak. The Eagles hit 12 three-pointers including eight in a 45-point second half, getting four each from Rogers and sophomore Matt Mayock. Prior to the losing streak, American had won five straight including a 3-0 performance at the Puerto Rico Clasico.
- Rogers currently ranks in the top 10 in the Patriot League in scoring (4th, 16.4 ppg), rebounding (9th, 5.7 rpg), field-goal percentage (5th, 54.0), and free-throw percentage (9th, 73.5). Sophomore Greg Jones ranks second in the PL in free-throw shooting at 88.1 percent, with senior Elijah Stephens close behind him in fourth at 84.1 percent. Grad student Colin Smalls is seventh in that same category at 79.2.
- American has drained 10 or more three-pointers five times this season, with all five coming in the most recent nine games. The Eagles made a season-high 13 triples in an OT win over GW on Dec. 4, and made 12 treys in the Holy Cross win on Jan. 5. Last year, AU had 12 games with 10 or more three-pointers, but that number was only five total in 2022-23 prior to the arrival of head coach Duane Simpkins.
What to Know About Loyola Maryland
- After winning an intra-state rivalry game against Navy, the Loyola Greyhounds host American on Monday for their third home game out of their last four contests.
- Loyola lost a pair of 74-72 heartbreakers to Holy Cross and Army West Point in Patriot League action in addition to an 80-74 win over Lehigh and its most recent 75-74 victory over Navy on a putback from Braeden Speed with 3.1 seconds left.
- Senior forward Milos Ilic leads the team with 14.1 points per game. He also is tied for the team lead with 43 total assists. Sophomore guards Jordan Stiemke (13.0) and Jacob Theodosiou (12.9) are also putting up double figures thus far for the Greyhounds.
- Josh Loeffler is in his first season at the helm of Loyola, but he is familiar with both the program and the recruiting area. As head coach at neighboring Johns Hopkins from 2017-23, he went 114-27 overall.
- In Loeffler's final season at Johns Hopkins, the Blue Jays reached the Division III Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2015 and Loeffler was named the NABC Region V Coach of the Year. He was previously an assistant coach at Loyola from 2013-17.
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