The Loyola Cubs began the Providence Tournament on Tuesday, November 13, against the South Pasadena Tigers.
South Pasadena began the game leading 4-0, and after a back-and-forth rally, the game was tied 15-15 with less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter. With the Tigers leading 19-17 in the final seconds, junior forward Colby Brooks made the tying layup to beat the buzzer.
In the second quarter, the momentum shifted Loyola's way. They led by as many as 15 points. They got a huge spark from senior forward Jake Perfitt. Head Coach Jamal Adams said that Perfitt wasn’t feeling great, but came in anyway. “I think he scored seven points early in the second quarter,” Adams said. Perfitt also had a putback layup and a three pointer. Adams also remarked, “I really think that that ignited the team. The first unit came in, they kept that momentum going. We took seven [point lead] and stretched it out to 18 at the end of the first half.” And once again, Brooks made another buzzer beating layup to put the Cubs up 48-30 at halftime.
The Cubs had control of the game in the second half, leading by as many as 20 points. Senior forward James Keefe made a layup to put the Cubs up 64-41 with 4:18 remaining in the third quarter. Shortly after, senior guard Mason Butler stole the inbounds pass, which resulted in another layup by Keefe to expand the Cubs’ lead to 15, 66-41. The Cubs ended the 3rd quarter strong, leading the Tigers 70-51.
And the fourth quarter was no different. The Cubs rode their momentum to the end. Off of an inbounds pass by senior guard Jared Cox, sophomore guard John Belardi buried a three pointer, putting the Cubs ahead 80-66 with 5:25 to go. With less than three minutes remaining in the game, junior guard Uriel Ferguson found junior forward Christian Suceveanu for a bucket to expand the Cubs’ lead to 22. The Cubs took down the Tigers 92-67.
As a team, the Cubs shot 67% from the field, and 37% from behind the arc. James Keefe led the Cubs in the scoring department. He had 24 points to go along with seven rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Jake Perfitt had 12 points, four rebounds, and a steal.
Adams believes the team was able to shift the momentum to their side by getting defensive stops and getting into an offensive rhythm. “We’re talented, we got a lot of guys that can put the ball in the basket.” He added, “I worry about player movement and ball movement and sharing it, but we have a lot of offensive talent. If we get stops and we run, then we’re gonna score at a high clip [a lot of points]. I thought we got a bunch of stops in the second quarter.”
While the Cubs were able to score with their transition offense, they were unable to knock down their free throws, shooting only 33% from the line. Adams hopes it was just “first game jitters”. He said, “We’ve shot it well all fall at the line." He added, “It’s definitely an area where you can lose basketball games in. So we gotta take care of that and pay attention to that.”