BALTIMORE – After a 20-2 run in the closing six minutes of the first half, American University men's basketball rolled to its first road win of the season at Loyola Maryland (7-9, 2-3) on Monday night. The Eagles (9-9, 3-2) got 19 points apiece from graduate student
Matt Rogers and senior
Elijah Stephens in a 73-54 victory at Reitz Arena.
Notable Numbers
- American claimed its first Patriot League road win by taking advantage of the Greyhounds' 14 miscues, running up a 20-5 advantage in points off turnovers and an 18-0 edge in fastbreak points.
- Rogers scored 11 points during the first-half run, finishing the game with 19 while hitting 3-of-6 from long range.
- Stephens shot 8-of-12 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from long distance to finish one point shy of his season-high. He also dished out a team-high five assists to become the 26th Patriot League men's basketball student-athlete to eclipse 400 career assists.
- Sophomore guard Matt Mayock chipped in 11 points, three rebounds and three steals for American, also hitting three of the Eagles' 10 triples.
- The Eagles connected on 50 percent (28-of-56) from the field, making 10-of-23 from three-point range.
- Graduate student Lincoln Ball posted a strong stat line for a second game in a row, hitting 3-of-4 from the field for seven points, and leading all players in the game with seven rebounds.
First Half
- AU never trailed in the contest, lead at 2-0 and seeing the game's only tie come at 2-2.
- Despite five early turnovers on the Greyhounds giving the Eagles plenty of opportunities, the shots didn't fall at a high percent early on as the Eagles' lead was just four, 11-7 at 11:35.
- An Eric Michaels dunk at 8:35 off a great feed from Ball gave American its first double-digit lead of 19-9, but Loyola followed it with an 8-0 run.
- Up just two, 19-17 with six minutes left, American caught fire the rest of the way.
- The Eagles got five points from Ball in a 10-0 run and ultimately closed out the first half on a 20-4 run that had them up by 20 at the break.
- Rogers drained back-to-back triples around the one-minute mark and bookended them with layups to score the final 10 points of the first half.
- With a putback from Rogers in the final seconds, the Eagles took a 39-19 lead into halftime.
- AU shot an even 50 percent from the field (16-of-32) while the Greyhounds shot just 33 percent (7-for-21) and committed 10 turnovers to the Eagles' three, leading to an 18-2 advantage for AU in points off turnovers.
Second Half
- Stephens scored the first five points for American in the second half, and the long range shots kept falling.
- Freshman Wyatt Nausadis hit a trey at 14:54 for AU's largest lead of 30 points, 52-22.
- Loyola cut the margin to 20 with seven minutes left, but came no closer until its final points of the game at the free throw line with 13 seconds left.
- The Eagles went 6-for-12 from long range in the second half and also shot 50 percent overall.
Up Next
- The Eagles are back on the road for their next game, a 1 p.m. contest at Holy Cross on Saturday, Jan. 18. The two teams already faced each other in D.C., with AU winning 75-64 on Jan. 5.
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