All season, Loyola star David Bailey has been asking his teammates to step up and take some of the shots that he has been putting up.
On Wednesday night, Kevin Clancy and fellow Ramblers heeded the advice of their 5-foot-8-inch point guard and coach Larry Farmer. Their balanced scoring produced the team’s biggest victory of the season, a 60-56 triumph over Horizon League leader Butler before 4,125 fans at the Gentile Center.
Clancy, a transfer from Bradley who played at Notre Dame High School, took the shots he had been passing up. He went 3-of-4 from three-point range and scored a career-high 14 points.
“Yes, my teammates and coaches have been telling me to take those shots,” Clancy said. “So tonight I did. I guess I’ll have to keep taking them.”
Bailey led all scorers with 20 points, taking only 13 shots. In a recent loss he went 7-of-25, taking almost half his team’s shots.
“This balance was much better tonight,” Bailey said. “It shows we can play with anyone in this league.”
Fierce pressure defense and aggressive rebounding also helped Loyola avenge the 78-48 loss it suffered when it was outrebounded 39-30 in Hinkle Fieldhouse last month.
Ryan Blankson had 14 rebounds and Clancy seven as the Ramblers held a 38-31 rebounding advantage over Butler and its Big Ten-sized front line of 6-10 Joel Cornette, 6-11 Scott Robisch and 6-6 Rylan Hainje.
The Ramblers burned the Bulldogs with their trapping pressure defense, which led to eight steals.
“They kind of caught us by surprise with that trap,” Butler guard Thomas Jackson said.
“This is by far our best defensive effort of the year,” Farmer said. “We pressured them on the perimeter. We gave them very few second shots. We limited their three-point shooting.”
Loyola jumped to a 10-1 lead, led 28-21 at the half, opened a 47-34 lead with eight minutes left and survived a late Butler rush led by Mike Monserez, who had 11 of his team-high 14 points in the final minutes.
Butler pulled within 59-56 on Darnell Archey’s three-pointer with two seconds left. But Bailey then sank a free throw to ice the outcome.
