KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WGNO) – Loyola senior Myles Burns said it best in the locker room after the Wolf Pack’s 85-67 win over Faulkner in the NAIA National Championship Round of 16 in Kansas City, Missouri.
“It’s not over yet,” Burns told his teammates. “It’s a good dub. Let’s move on to the next one.”
After a close first 15 minutes of the game, the Wolf Pack started to pull away from their Southern States Athletic Conference rival, and now they’ll turn their attention to No. 3-seed College of Idaho in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday at Municipal Auditorium.
It was Burns who got things started for the Wolf Pack, hitting a 3-pointer for the game’s first points. Faulkner, however, made five 3s in the first eight minutes to hold a 19-17 lead over Loyola. After a scoring lull for both teams, Andrew Fava gave the Pack a 20-19 lead with a 3-pointer, and Faulkner never held a lead after that point.
Zach Wrightsil and Burns combined for the next eight points and Fava nailed another 3-pointer, as the Pack led 30-25 with 4:30 until halftime. Burns recorded three rebounds in a 10-second span after that, which gave the senior a double-double with more than three minutes until halftime. Terry Smith Jr. scored for Loyola and Jalen Galloway added a 3 to make it a nine-point lead, 35-26, and a dunk by Burns made it a double-digit lead, 39-28, with two minutes left.
Fava hit his third 3-pointer in the final seconds to cap off a 21-5 run to close out the first half, 46-30.
Faulkner had trouble making up any ground on the Pack, as the Eagles hit a 3 in the early going but Zach Muller matched it with one of his own on Loyola’s end of the floor, 51-33. Brandon Davis finally got on the board, too, hitting a 3 as well to put the Pack up 54-35 just two minutes into the second half. After Galloway converted a steal into a fastbreak dunk, Faulkner scored the next eight points to cut Loyola’s lead to 11, but that would be the closest it could get to Loyola.
Burns scored the next five points, including a 3-pointer, to regain the momentum halfway through the second half, then Smith, Wrightsil and Muller made it an 11-0 run for Loyola to quickly push the lead back to 22, 73-51, with nine minutes left. From there, Loyola cruised to the win with the two teams matching each other shot-for-shot down the stretch.
Loyola plays College of Idaho Saturday at 11 am in Kansas City.