CHICAGO (January 13, 2022) - Winner of 17 of its last 18 regular-season Missouri Valley Conference contests, Loyola puts an overall eight-game win streak on the line Saturday night when it visits Indiana State. At 12-2 this season, the Ramblers are off to their best start through 14 games since 1965-66, when they won 13 of their first 14 outings.

Loyola has prevailed in nine of its last 10 true road games, with the lone loss being a 51-50 setback, in overtime, at Drake, last February.

At 3-0, Loyola is off to its best start in Missouri Valley Conference play since joining the league for the 2013-14 season. This marks the Ramblers' best start to league competition, regardless of affiliation, since starting the 2001-02 Horizon League slate with six straight victories.

Dating back to last season, the Ramblers are 31-4 (.886) in their last 35 games. Three of those losses came to power conference foes and the other was a one-point overtime loss at Drake, which was a NCAA Tournament team in 2020-21. Loyola's two setbacks this season came at the hands of current Top 10 teams, Michigan State and Auburn.

Each of the Ramblers' last two contests has gone into overtime, marking the first time since February 21 and 23, 2012 that Loyola has played consecutive overtime games. Never in program history have the Ramblers played three straight games that went into an extra session.

Loyola – Indiana State – The Series

The Ramblers and Sycamores are pairing up for the 36th time in a series that started in 1924. Loyola possesses a slim, 18-17, edge in the all-time series and has won 10 of the last 13 meetings between the teams.

Loyola is 6-9 against Indiana State in Terre Haute and has captured four of the last six matchups at Hulman Center, although it has stumbled in two of the last three games there. In their last appearance at Hulman Center, the Ramblers won a slugfest, 58-48, on January 11, 2021, behind 16 points from Cameron Krutwig.

Last month, the Ramblers held off a late rally to knock off the Sycamores, 88-76, at Gentile Arena in the MVC opener for both clubs. Lucas Williamson tossed in 20 points, while Marquise Kennedy added 16 for Loyola, which shot 57.8 percent (26-for-45) from the field.

Scouting Indiana State

Under the direction of first-year coach Josh Schertz, Indiana State has rebounded from a four-game losing skid to win five of its last seven contests, although it is coming off an 80-74 overtime defeat at the hands of Northern Iowa on January 11. 

The Sycamores sport an unblemished 6-0 record at Hulman Center this season and prevailed in their lone Valley home game, disposing of Bradley, 76-71, on January 2.

One of the top free-throw shooting clubs in The Valley (.754), Indiana State ranks ninth in scoring defense however, yielding 71.0 points per game.

Junior guard Cooper Neese leads the Sycamores' high-scoring attack with 16.3 ppg, while transfer Cameron Henry, who played the last two seasons for Schertz at Lincoln Memorial, contributes 14.4 ppg and 6.2 rpg.

Up Next

Loyola gets right back on the road and heads to Evansville January 18 for a 7 p.m. contest.