It might have been easy for Loyola to look past IPFW on Saturday afternoon, but Ramblers seniors Blake Schilb and Majak Kou weren’t about to let that happen.
With Horizon League leader Butler coming to the Gentile Center on Thursday, the non-conference visitors from Indiana-Purdue-Ft. Wayne could have been an unpleasant surprise. Kou, with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Schilb, with 13 points, four assists and three steals, led Loyola to a 69-53 win.
“We wanted to look at it as a tuneup, but we didn’t want to look past it,” said Schilb, who scored eight straight points in a 10-0 run that started the second half. “We know we have a big game Thursday. Everybody is talking about it. But we still had to take care of business here first. We always want to take care of business at home.”
Loyola (13-7), taking a break from its Horizon League activity, started a four-game homestand. The next three games are against league opponents Butler, Wright State and Youngstown State. The Ramblers were 1-2 on a conference road trip and needed to build momentum after a 70-64 victory Wednesday at Detroit.
Schilb started the second half with a jumper and followed with a pair of three-pointers. J.R. Blount, who had 15 points, added a basket and turned a game that was 33-32 at halftime into a 43-32 lead with 16 minutes 41 seconds left.
Loyola, which got 16 points off the bench from Leon Young, stretched the lead to 60-41 on Schilb’s three with 6:06 left.
Loyola has kept its opponents below 70 points in seven of its last eight victories. In the first half IPFW (7-12), which had won three straight under former Indiana player Dane Fife, went inside to forwards Tyler Best and Jaraun Burrows with success.
In the second half Loyola’s defense tightened up. Young graduate DeWitt Scott led IPFW with 15 points, 12 of them from behind from three-point line.
“Defensively, I thought we played much better for about 14 or 15 minutes,” Loyola coach Jim Whitesell said of the second half. “We worked harder and scrambled. Best was giving us so many problems in the first half. Our guys did a better job of not letting him touch the ball. . . . When we play defense, we’re a much better team.”
Kou scored 13 of his 15 first-half points in the last 9 1/2 minutes. IPFW held the lead for most of the first 10 minutes of play, leading by as many as six. Kou, who was presented a game ball for scoring his 1,000th career point last month, tied things 16-16 with a three-pointer with 9:33 to go and the Ramblers never trailed again.
“This is our senior year,” said Kou, a 6-foot-5-inch guard from Hamilton, Ontario. “There are no more games for me after this year. We just want to go out, play hard and hopefully get the win.”
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rhanley@tribune.com
