Its most consistent player was saddled with four fouls, a nine-point lead had shrunk to two, and Loyola was in danger of heading to its eighth loss in nine games.
Enter John McDonald, and some solid defense by the Greyhounds.
The freshman point guard scored 10 points during a 15-2 run that enabled Loyola to pull away from Iona for a 68-54 win at Reitz Arena last night. It was the Greyhounds' largest margin of victory this season, and their best defensive effort of the year.
McDonald wasn't thinking runaway when senior forward B. J. Pendleton went to the bench with his fourth foul with 12:08 left. Loyola led 42-37 at that point, but three minutes later, the Gaels took advantage of three straight turnovers by the Greyhounds to close to within 48-46.
"I was scared the game was going to turn around on us," McDonald said.
Instead, McDonald dropped in a pair of three-pointers, followed up a teammate's miss and added two free throws during the decisive run that began with a Matt Gabriel three-pointer. It was fueled by the Greyhounds' help defense, which limited the Gaels to a single basket in the last nine minutes.
The victory came in the middle of a five-game homestand, and lifted Loyola (7-15, 3-7) to a share of sixth place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. In the eyes of first-year coach Brian Ellerbe, it was a product of the Greyhounds solving the 2-3 zone used exclusively by Iona (7-15, 3-7).
"I think we grew up today playing against a zone," Ellerbe said. "We missed B. J.'s rebounding when he went out, but that's when we began to move the basketball around. Early in the game, we had too many people turning down too many good shots on the perimeter."
Loyola wasn't the only one to struggle early, as the teams combined to shoot 28.8 percent from the field in a dismal half that ended with the Greyhounds up 26-25.
Pendleton got Loyola rolling in the second half, and the Hounds used seven straight points to go ahead 39-30. When Pendleton was hit with his fourth foul, he had a third of his team's 42 points. By the time he returned, Loyola had a 68-51 lead.
"Doing this with B. J. on the bench shows we can take it to another level even if he's not there," McDonald said.
McDonald had 18 points, Pendleton had 14, and Teron Owens (Catonsville High) came up big in the third guard spot with 10 points and 13 rebounds. The Greyhounds limited Mikkel Larsen, the MAAC's leading scorer, to 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting.
It was Iona's fifth game without coach Jerry Welsh, who took leave following heart problems last month. The interim coach is his son, Tim, and his only victory came against Loyola 11 days ago, a 19-point rout.