Greyhounds

The window opened and Darius Johnson saw nothing but baskets before him.With Loyola's leader, B. J. Pendleton, hobbled by a strained hamstring and foul trouble last night, Johnson took over the Greyhounds' offense with a passion.The sophomore guard from Cincinnati burned winless American U. for 23 first-half points and finished with a career-high 27 in Loyola's 81-68 victory before 1,025 at Reitz Arena."Basically, I knew I had to step up," said Johnson, whose late three- pointer in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game was one of the biggest shots in Loyola history.

Loyola realized what was at stake. The No. 6 Greyhounds knew a win over No. 4 Syracuse would mean a chance to gain the inside edge on a top four seeding and a first-round bye in the NCAA lacrosse tournament -- and to be considered among the season's elite teams.With so much to play for, no one could say why Loyola looked so listless as the Orangemen trampled the Greyhounds, 23-13, yesterday in front of 3,307 at Curley Field.Loyola's players had no explanations for the school's worst loss in four seasons; no explanations why its normally athletic defense became stationary, allowing the most goals since 1983 and more than 20 for the first time in five years.

Skip Prosser, the new basketball coach at Loyola College, knows that the next two weeks will be some of the most important he'll spend with the Greyhounds.Prosser was introduced to players, fellow employees, alumni and boosters at Reitz Arena yesterday afternoon. He and athletic director Joe Boylan then met to iron out specifics of a multi-year deal that will be made official next week.Prosser, who spent the past eight seasons as an assistant at Xavier, was to travel today to New Orleans and the Final Four, and it's not a social visit.

Loyola 70, Iona 63 - Freshman Anthony Winbush (17 points) hit three-pointers on each end of a 10-0 second-half run that gave Loyola the lead for good as the visiting Greyhounds beat Iona yesterday in the regular-season finale for both teams. The victory ended a seven-game losing streak for Loyola (12-19, 7-11 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), while the Gaels (12-18, 7-11) dropped their fourth straight. The eighth-seeded Greyhounds face Canisius at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Albany, N.Y., in the first round of the conference tournament.

WASHINGTON -- If the Loyola Greyhounds weren't acutely aware of what a difference point guard Tracy Bergan makes before last night, they are now.Bergan, who had averaged 20.3 points and 5.1 assists while engineering Loyola's 2-1 start, stayed home to nurse the tendinitis in his left knee. And the Greyhounds walked into Bender Arena to face a winless, frustrated American University team and suffered the consequences.The Eagles used their size to take command early with strong play inside, blitzed the Greyhounds with an outside shooting exhibition to draw away to a 16-point halftime lead, then led by as many as 27 before settling for a 112-96 rout.

RIDER 77, LOYOLA 75 -The Broncs' Ryan Thompson drove the length of the floor and laid in the game-winning basket as time expired last night, spoiling the Greyhounds' senior night and home finale. With 1:10 left, a running layup by Brian Rudolph, who led Loyola (11-19, 6-11 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) with 19 points, tied the score at 75. After Rider missed its next attempt, Marquis Sullivan (Archbishop Spalding) and Rudolph missed shots, the last with four seconds left, and Rider's Justin Robinson, who scored eight of his 15 points in just over four minutes of the second half to pull the Broncs (17-11, 11-6)

Loyola doesn't need to look far for evidence that it can compete with No. 2 Duke, which comes to town today undefeated and leading the nation in scoring offense. The precedent was set last year, when the Greyhounds scored twice in the last two minutes to beat the Blue Devils, 8-7, on a neutral field in San Diego. Duke had entered the game No. 1. "It was our best game, and it kind of took us on a little bit of a run," Loyola coach Charley Toomey said yesterday. The game came amid a five-game Greyhounds winning streak.

The confidence dwindles as the losses pile up for Loyola.The Greyhounds, who haven't been favored to win in two months, returned to Reitz Arena for their only home date in a five-game, 18-day span last night, but they needed more than friendly rims to stay with Siena. The Saints scored 12 straight points before and after halftime, and were never threatened in the second half of their 71-57 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory.It was the fifth straight loss for Loyola (2-17, 1-9), which needs a couple of upsets to avoid the worst record at Evergreen in 56 years.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Against all odds, Loyola hoped to extend its basketball season into today with a victory in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference basketball tournament.The Greyhounds were playing today, but only because of tournament delays that pushed the end of their game against top-seeded Manhattan past midnight.Shortly thereafter -- 13 minutes, to be exact -- time ran out on this longest of Loyola seasons in a 57-37 loss."Our entire idea was to make this as ugly as possible," said Loyola coach Joe Boylan, who finished his two-month interim stint 1-15.

In a community ravaged by indescribable tragedy, every individual act of kindness, every unexpected moment of joy takes on a special significance that only those who are living with it can truly understand. So, when Loyola freshman Jason Crane organized a group of 14 players from the Greyhounds' defending NCAA champion men's lacrosse team to put on a youth clinic in Newtown, Conn., just three weeks after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it may have seemed like a small gesture that would soon be lost among the big headlines and and even bigger political repercussions generated by such a horrific incident.