Loyola Starting Lineup
PG- #12 John Belardi Jr. (6’ 3” 180)
SG- #10 Jack Kresich Jr. (6’7” 195)
SF- #13 Andre Parris Sr. (6’3” 190)
PF- #35 Remington Rofer Jr. (6’8” 190)
C- #20 Colby Brooks Sr. ( 6’ 7” 210)
First Quarter
After winning the opening tipoff Loyola immediately turned the ball over only to regain possession off of a costly Sylmar traveling call. Directly after Loyola gained possession, Senior Andre Parris made a jump-shot just inside the arc for the first score of the game. Initially responding with a Layup to bring the score to 2-2, Sylmar’s offensive attack fell off as the Cubs went on to score 7 unanswered with a pair of layups from Remington Rofer and Colby Brooks cementing the score at 9-2 to end the first.
Second Quarter
Following a strong defensive first, the Cubs let up 5 straight to Sylmar to make the score 7-21 Halfway through the second. Offensively the Cubs responded scoring on a fast break layup by Senior Uri Ferguson and a strong left-handed layup by Christian Suceveanu from inside the paint. Finishing the quarter off were a pair of corner 3’s made by Brooks and Parris which brought the score to 14-31 to end the half.
Third Quarter
Loyola’s defensive dominance continued heading into the third as Sylmar struggled to get any offense going right from the get go. With 6:30 left Junior Jack Kresich scored a reverse layup for the Cubs extending Loyola’s lead to 17-33. Soon after a layup by Remington Rofer and a contested three pointer by John Belardi widened the score gap to 19-40. As the clock ran down the play of the night came when Senior Grant Roquemore tipped a pass and then subsequently ran down court on the fast break to finish the play off with a slam dunk giving the Cubs a 20-50 lead heading into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
At the start of the fourth the majority of Loyola’s starters were subbed out giving the younger players a chance to show their skills. Taking over at Point Guard, Junior Dylan Tracy-Lindenbaum began the fourth with a pair of layups to make it 54-20. However, inexperience on the part of some of Loyola’s younger players led to several turnovers which allowed Sylmar to close the gap to 27-54 with 3:34 left in the game. In the end this didn’t matter as a layup by Nick Green and a deep three from Reid Neuman put Loyola ahead 59-33 capping off a strong defensive showing and sealing the victory for the Cubs.