CHICAGO - Loyola Chicago looks to even the all-time series with Harvard Saturday afternoon in Gentile Arena. The Ramblers and Crimson tipoff at 3 p.m. following the women's game vs. Eastern Illinois. Loyola is coming off back-to-back wins for the first time this season after downing Boston College and Chicago State over the last week of action, while Harvard bounced back with a win vs. American on Wednesday.
Saturday's game can be listened to on the Rambler Sports Network with Scott Sudikoff (PXP) and Christian Thomas (Analyst). Listen on the Go Ramblers App, Varsity Network App or LoyolaRamblers.com with pregame coverage starting 20 minutes prior to tip-off.
Quick Hits
• Loyola returned to its home court Tuesday night picking up a hard fought rivalry win against Chicago State. The Cougars held an edge until midway through the second half when the Ramblers held them scoreless for over 11 minutes and used a 14-0 run to take the lead and never look back.
• In the 62-53 win, three Ramblers scored double-figures.
Jalen Quinn led all-scorers with a season-high 15 points.
Sheldon Edwards joined him off the bench with a season-best 14 points, while
Des Watson notched his fifth double-digit scoring effort this season with 13 points.
• Quinn also set season-highs in rebounds (4) and assists (4).
• Watson continues to lead the Rambler offense with 14.1 points per game. He ranks 21st in the Atlantic 10 in scoring. Watson also sits among the league leaders in three-point field goal percentage (48.4 percent/10th), three-pointers made per game (2.1/14th), minutes per game (30.6/23rd), and free throw percentage (72.7 percent/25th).
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Dame Adelekun has been efficient from the field shooting 65.6 percent and ranking third overall in the A10. Adelekun is fourth on the team in scoring averaging 8.3 points per game. He's gotten to the line 21 times this season and is sinking 76.2 percent of his attempts to rank 20th in the conference.
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Braden Norris is proving his veteran status for the Ramblers leading the league in free throw percentage (94.4 percent), tying third in assists per game (4.9), and 10th in assist to turnover ration (2.4).
• Norris has tallied at least five assists in four games this season, including a season-high seven vs. Eastern Illinois. He added six earlier this week vs. Chicago State and had five against UIC and Creighton.
• Head coach
Drew Valentine is in his third season at the helm. He holds a 39-32 overall career record.
Scouting Harvard
Harvard enters the weekend at 6-2 after beating American at home Wednesday night, 80-75. The Crimson have only dropped two games this season to Boston College and Indiana and both came on the road. As a squad, Harvard is averaging 77.6 points per game on 47.6 percent from the field.
Malik Mack leads the Crimson with 21.8 points per game ranking 15th in the NCAA. Mack is shooting nearly 49 percent from three-point range for 11th in the nation. He's scored in double-figures in all eight games, including a season-high 32 points (10-23 FG, 5-10 3PT, 7-9 FT) in a win vs. Massachusetts.
Tommy Amaker is in his 16th season with the Crimson and 26th overall as a head coach. With Harvard, he's compiled a 284-168 record.
Series History
Harvard leads the all-time series 1-0 after winning the first match up last season.
Tom Welch scored 12 points to lead Loyola.
