Loyola fell to Tulane 83-70 Wednesday in its return to Gentile Arena. The Ramblers (4-2) have had trouble rebounding all season with their small lineup, and the Green Wave (6-1) took advantage in their sixth straight win.
Tulane out-rebounded Loyola 37-22 and scored 21 second-chance points.
“Obviously the whole storyline is rebounding. It’s our achilles heel,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “You don’t have to be big to rebound, you have to be tough. I thought they were tougher in the inside than we were. We did a lot of really good things tonight, but to overcome 21 points off offensive rebounds is a huge hole to get into.”
Tulane led from wire to wire, although Loyola was never totally out of the game. The Green Wave took a 34-24 lead into halftime, and the Ramblers were still within 10 points with 6:34 remaining at 58-48.
Loyola made three 3-pointers in the final two minutes and freshman forward Julius Rajala added the first four points of his career, but the Ramblers could not dig out of that hole.
Sophomore guard Milton Doyle led Loyola with 15 points. He played a season-low 22 minutes and had his worst all-around game with only one rebound, one assist and five turnovers.
Senior forward Christian Thomas posted 13 points and freshman wing Donte Ingram added a career-high 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
“Character is how you respond,” Moser said. “The guys gotta respond in terms of coming back to play UIC, it’s a rivalry game.”
Loyola faces UIC Saturday afternoon at UIC Pavilion.
