The American University men’s basketball team (10-9) blew out the Loyola Maryland Greyhounds (8-9) by a score of 73-54 at Reitz Arena on Jan. 13 for their first road win of the season.
After reaching 1,000 career points in his last game, senior guard Elijah Stephens hit another milestone, reaching 400 career assists in this American victory.
The Eagles played after only two days of rest since their last comeback win against the Bucknell Bison on Jan. 11. Coming into the game, the Eagles and the Greyhounds both had a 2-2 record in Patriot League play. The Eagles looked to capitalize on a team with a weaker overall record than them to make a push toward a high seed in the Patriot League playoffs.
The injury plague continues to challenge this American lineup. The team has missed junior guard Geoff Sprouse for four straight games. On top of that, the Eagles were left without graduate student guard Colin Smalls. In the second half of the last game, he got injured and went to the locker room with an apparent ankle injury, but ended up returning to play the rest of the game. There is no timeline for either of their returns yet, but Eagles head coach Duane Simpkins said they would both be reevaluated post-game back in D.C.
Injuries didn’t seem to stop the Eagles. As soon as the game started, they came out rolling. Graduate student forward Matt Rogers won the tip, and the ball immediately landed in Stephens’ hands. Stephens flew by all his defenders for an easy layup only 4 seconds into the game.
Stephens and Rogers then scored the next 4 points for American, driving downhill for layups. Once the Eagles secured an early 11-5 lead with 12:37 remaining, they maintained control and never looked back.
The Eagles also played ferocious defense, keeping Loyola’s starters from scoring. They got steals, forced Loyola turnovers on shot clock violations and then capitalized on those turnovers.
With 8:35 remaining in the half, freshman forward Eric Michaels got a steal and took it all the way to the other end for an emphatic dunk to extend the lead to 19-9, forcing the Greyhounds to take a timeout.
Loyola tried to rally back as they cut the lead to 1 point with 6:08 left in the half, but a Stephens snatch-back 3-pointer sparked a huge 20-2 run for the Eagles to close the half out. Following the Stephens 3-pointer, graduate student guard Lincoln Ball muscled his way through the lane for a bucket and the foul. Rogers then went on a tear getting 4 back to back buckets, including two 3-pointers and a buzzer-beating put back layup to end the half.
The Eagles went into halftime leading 39-19 with the game’s fate seemingly sealed. Of note, the Eagles forced 10 Loyola turnovers in the first half alone and scored 18 points off them. They limited their own turnovers to 3 and succeeded in protecting the ball.
The second half was the same as the first, but down 23 with 17:15, Loyola ran a full court press and started double-teaming Stephens. That adjustment backfired, leading to wide-open 3-pointers from sophomore forward Matt Mayock and freshman guard Wyatt Nausadis.
Off that Nausadis’ bucket, the Eagles extended their lead to 30 points — their largest of the game — with 14:52 remaining.
Loyola tried to mount a comeback, but only cut the lead to 19 by the end of the game. Loyola dribbled the ball out as the final buzzer rang, and the Eagles beat the Greyhounds 73-54 in their opponent’s home arena.
Stephens and Rogers led the team in scoring, and Stephens led the team in assists. Stephens dropped 19 points, 5 assists, 1 rebound and 2 steals. Rogers had 19 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist. The Eagles also shot 50 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from 3-point land. They had three players in double-digit points and limited Loyola to only having one player score in double digits.
This game was also another huge milestone for Stephens. Stephens, who recently entered the 1,000 points club, also recorded assist number 400 during his time in an Eagles jersey. Stephens is now ranked 27th in Patriot League assists history, with 402 and counting.
Last season, Stephens was named All-Patriot League Defensive First Team, but after his performance today, he’s making his case for Patriot League Defensive Player of The Year instead.
“Yeah I’m definitely eyeing that and I want to get that this year” Stephens said. “So I’m doing whatever I can to get it.”
Stephens also has high hopes and goals for the team.
“Definitely winning the Patriot League. Getting first place, going to the NCAA tournament and just seeing all of my teammates win and eat,” Stephens said.
Stephens credited the team’s strong performance to starting the game immediately with momentum.
“I feel like it was good momentum. We started out real high. We started coming out with fire and that just helped us fuel into, into building a lead,” Stephens said.
Postgame, Simpkins spoke about his goal to steadily improve the team’s defensive capabilities, which showed against Loyola.
“We’ve been working on changing the identity of our defense since the summertime. I think it’s starting to catch hold a little bit. Teams that are not used to that kind of pressure and denial, that can knock them on their heels. And I thought that’s what we did the first four or five minutes especially,” Simpkins said.
Part of the motivation behind the team playing super physically and with pace in this statement victory came from other teams out-rebounding them and showing more toughness than the Eagles.
“The motivation for us, teams have been beating us on the glass. I told our guys, we have got to take that personally. That’s obvious that teams have seen it on film and they’re saying, ‘Hey, we can beat them on the glass and you can miss shots and everything,’” Simpkins said. “Teams should never be able to say, ‘we’re tougher than you, we’re going to show it.’ So I think that that was the motivation for us more than anything.”
The Eagles defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders on Jan. 18 away in Worcester, sweeping them in the season series. They return home for a match against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in Bender Arena on Jan. 22.
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Penelope Jennings and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Olivia Citarella, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Nicole Kariuki.
