January 14, 2015

EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette men’s basketball team rode a solid defensive effort to outlast Loyola on Wednesday evening inside Kirby Sports Center, 69-65, for their third Patriot League win of the season.

The victory moves the Leopards to 11-5 on the year and 3-2 in conference action, while Loyola drops to 6-10 overall and 2-3 in Patriot League play. Senior captain Seth Hinrichs led the way offensively with 22 points, while classmates Dan Trist and Joey Ptasinski chipped in with 13 points apiece.

“Our zone slowed them down and forced them into some tough shots,” head coach Fran O’Hanlon said. “I think the shot-clock violations were huge. We did a great job of recognizing their shooters and not allowing them to get easy shots inside.”

Those shot-clock violations, two in a five-minute stretch midway through the second half, personified one of the Leopards’ more impressive defensive efforts of the season. Their 65 points allowed were the fourth-lowest of the season thus far and the third of the last four opponents to be kept under 70 points.

Offensively, Lafayette shot 25-of-59 from the floor (42.4%), 9-of-22 from three (40.9%) and 10-of-15 from the free-throw line (66.7%). On the other side, the Greyhounds went 21-for-50 from the field (42.0%), 9-for-19 from three-point range (47.4%) and 14-for-17 from the charity stripe (82.4%). Loyola won the battle on the glass, 37-31, but Lafayette held the edge in points in the paint, 26-22, and points off turnovers, 12-10.

Lafayette’s offense looked in sync with a number of good looks in the opening four minutes of the game. Hinrichs converted through a foul into the opening media timeout, while sophomore Monty Boykins finished in the paint on the next possession to open up a 6-3 advantage after the first five minutes.

A pair of threes from Eric Laster with 13 minutes to play in the first swung momentum in Loyola’s favor, taking an 11-9 edge, their first of the game. A pair of free throws from Boykins, two of seven first-half points for the West Chester, Ohio native, moved Lafayette back on top by three, 16-13, with 11:47 left to play in the opening half.

The sides exchanged leads throughout the midway point of the half as a strong move down the right side of the lane by freshman Matt Klinewski put Lafayette back on top by one with 7:30 to go. Back-to-back triples from Hinrichs with five minutes left knotted the game at 27 and another at the 4:02 mark pushed the Leopards ahead, 30-29.

A drive from sophomore Nick Lindner at the two-minute mark moved the lead to three at 34-31, but Loyola responded, taking over the advantage at 35-34 with under a minute to play. Klinewski finished through a foul at the 29-second mark and Loyola converted at the rim with two seconds to play to send the game into the intermission knotted at 37.

Loyola opened the second half with five straight points to open up a 42-37 lead after the first two minutes, also forcing Trist back to the bench with his third personal foul. A Hinrichs three in the corner at the 15-minute mark finished off a 6-1 run into the first media timeout to tie it up at 43.

The Maroon and White worked on both ends of the floor over the next four minutes as a triple from Ptasinski gave the Leopards their largest lead of the game to that point at 51-45 with 11:33 to play. Another from the senior at the 8:40 mark extended the edge to double-digits at 10, 57-47.

Loyola worked at the lead over the following six minutes as Tyler Hubbard drained a long triple at the end of the shot clock with less than five minutes left to cut the advantage to three at 61-58. Hinrichs picked up his fifth foul with 1:43 remaining and Loyola converted at the free-throw line to make it a two-point game at 67-65 with 1:21 left.

With less than a minute left and Loyola down one, Trist got caught in a switch and Denzel Brito tried to take advantage of the mismatch. Instead, Brito’s step-back from the foul line was off the mark, and junior Bryce Scott grabbed a big rebound, finding Ptasinski who was immediately fouled. Ptasinski knocked down a pair from the free-throw line to increase the lead to four, and the Leopards came away with a 69-65 victory.

The Leopards remain home through the week, hosting American on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff.