By james art The Wolf Pack men’s basketball team travels to Baton Rouge to play an exhibition contest against the Louisiana State University Division I Tigers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in the second game of their 2024-25 campaign.
“LSU is my alma mater, but on Tuesday night we are enemies,” head coach Donald Reyes said before the game. “We know that on any given night, anybody can be beat, so our job is to come out and play our best.”
The exhibition game is the first of six games away from home for the Wolf Pack, which includes a two-way trip to California, where they will play the tenth-ranked team in the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association at The Master’s University and a contest against Hope International University.
The Wolfpack enter the game coming off a season-opening win against New Orleans Southern University on Thursday, where they never trailed in the second half of the game and were led by 17 points, seven assists from junior guard Alex Hammond and 13 points each from junior s redshirt Leonard Jackson and redshirt sophomore Zachary Lee.
LSU outrebounded Loyola 110-48 and created havoc on the defensive side of the ball and frustrated the Wolf Pack in the first half as the Tigers forced 13 turnovers, scored 17 points off those turnovers and held Loyola to 14 percent shooting from the field.
In the second half, the Wolf Pack upped their shooting percentage to 39 percent from the field and 36 percent from beyond the three-point line as they were led by graduating senior forward Braley Albert, who scored eight points to go along with two assists and two rebounds, and junior guard Alex Hammond, who scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds.
For Loyola, this game marks the first of three exhibition games the team will play against NCAA Division I opponents this season, with the other two coming against the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg on Nov. 12 and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond on Dec. 20 in their final game of 2024. The team’s next game will be Nov. 2 when the Wolf Pack travels to Alexandria, LA to play the LSU Alexandria Generals, who are ranked No. 12 in the latest National Association. of the Intercollegiate Athletics Polls.