Men's Basketball: Hawks pull off road win over Loyola-Chicago
Junior guard Aaron Hill scored 25 points to lead the Rockhurst Hawks to an 86-79 victory over Loyola-Chicago Friday night at the Joseph J. Gentile Center in Chicago.
An 8-0 run late in the game gave the Hawks a 70-64 lead over the Division I Ramblers. Hill scored nine of Rockhurst's final 12 points to secure the road win. Hill made six consecutive free throws in the final two minutes.
"I think you have to congratulate Rockhurst, they played an excellent basketball game," said Loyola coach Jim Whitesell. "They seemed to answer every time we took the lead and got things going again, they punched us back. You've got to give those kids a lot of credit. Levels are levels, it doesn't matter what level they are, we knew they were going to be a good basketball team. We settled down a little in the second half, but you have to give them a lot of credit, we got outplayed tonight."
Hill drained five three-pointers as the Hawks hit 14-of-29 three-pointers. Senior forward Alden Smith finished with 21 points and senior center Brent Thome collected a team-high eight rebounds.
"We had seen them on tape and talked about how every other possession could possibly be a three," Whitesell added. "We talked a lot about how when they do miss, there's going to be some long rebounds. I think they did a great job of running their offense and I'd like to see us be much more aggressive and assertive defensively. We got rebounded in our gym, which is disappointing."
The game was an exhibition for Rockhurst, but counts as a regular-season game for Loyola.
Rockhurst opens the regular season Friday against Northwest Missouri State in the Hillyard Classic in St. Joseph, Mo., at 5:30 p.m..
Box Score: Rockhurst 86, Loyola-Chicago 79
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