“It was a long trip up here from campus tonight; guys were falling asleep on the bus,” Flames’ head coach Jimmy Collins said. “I think that it definitely hurt us when we came out early in the game.”

The Flames spent most of the game troubled by turnovers, committing 17 in the game—10 more than their opponents.

“If I’ve ever won a game where we committed 10 more turnovers than our opponents, I don’t remember it,” Collins said. “Our focus as a team was really off in the first half. The reason you can win a game like that with the turnovers is that you stay aggressive.”

And stay aggressive the Flames did, constantly attacking the Ramblers’ offense, and building up a big lead. The Flames led by as much as 14 in the first half and 15 in early in the second.

With Josh Mayo having some trouble from the field, the team looked to their big men down low for some efficient—and proficient—scoring. Forward Rob Eppinger scored a game-high 16 points on perfect 8-of-8 shooting from the field. Center Scott Vandermeer scored 12 and grabbed what was easily a game-high 17 rebounds.

“I was really just trying to take what they were giving me,” Mayo, the Horizon League’s leading scorer, said after the game. “Actually, I thought I got a lot of wide open looks, but they just weren’t falling. In the first half, I tried driving and dishing off the ball.”

Vandermeer has had some really big games in his career against Loyola, and Friday night’s effort was no different.

“You know we were just talking about that in the locker room,” Vandermeer said. “I had 14 rebounds in our last game against them last year, 14 rebounds against them earlier this season and 17 tonight. I don’t really know what it is, to be honest. Tonight, I just found myself on the right side of the hoop to get the rebounds . . . I just had a knack for getting to the ball.”

Even though the Flames dominated for large portions of the game (according to Loyola head coach Jim Whitesell, the game’s first 34 minutes), the Ramblers made a game of it towards the end.

Despite trailing by 13 points with 5:29 left in the game, the Ramblers played their way right back into the game with a 15-4 run, finding themselves with the ball with 10 seconds left after a Mayo miss.

As senior Justin Cerasoli pressed the ball up the court, he tried to get the ball to Jordan Hicks on the wing. But the pass was either errant or fumbled by Hicks, leading to a turnover that, for all intents and purposes, ended the game.

“I just wanted to kind of create something,” Cerasoli said. “We got the rebound and were trying to get the ball ahead. I might have thrown a bad pass; I don’t know.”

Fellow seniors Cerasoli and J. R. Blount led the Ramblers in scoring. Blount led the way with 16, with Cerasoli chipping in 13.

Mayo, also a senior, managed 13 points, but on only 4-of-12 shooting. He did, however, do something that he had never done before.

During the postgame press conference, Vandermeer announced to the room that Mayo had recorded his first career block.

“I’d like to let everyone know that Josh Mayo got the first block of his career tonight,” Vandermeer said. “And, I think it was one of mine. That’s ok, though, because I’ve got over 300—he can have one of mine.”

“My first career block?” Mayo said with a chuckle. “I don’t even remember it.”