NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Millsaps men's basketball team dropped its third-straight game to open the year, despite rallying from 19 points down at the half, as host Loyola held off a furious Major comeback to hold on for a 57-54 win Saturday night at The Den.
The win for Loyola also tied its best start since the 1953-54 season at 5-0 overall and sent the Majors to their fourth consecutive loss and first 0-3 start since the 2004-05 season.
Shooting just 23 percent in the opening period, Millsaps fell behind by 14 points early, 18-4, off Corey Grey's 3-pointer but rallied to score eight of the next 10 to bring it to 20-12, capped off by senior Chad Songy's 3-point bucket with 5 minutes left before the break.
Loyola, however, closed out the first half on a 13-2 run, and a couple of Sean Bennett free throws with two seconds remaining gave the Wolfpack a 33-14 lead at the break.
Ryan Brock's first 3-pointer of the game, coupled with back-to-back buckets from Robert Manson opened up Loyola's largest lead of the game at 41-16 with 18:40 to go and turned on a light switch for the Millsaps offense.
The Majors responded with a 23-5 run over the next 8:20 that cut Loyola's margin to seven points at 46-39 before the Wolfpack got the margin back to double-digits, 54-44, off a Darrinton Moncrieffe dunk with just over 5 minutes remaining.
Millsaps finished the contest on a 10-3 run, with Blake Martinez hitting the final jumper from the free throw line with 48 seconds remaining, to make the final margin 57-54. The Majors had a chance to tie it in the waning moments as Songy missed two long range 3-pointers.
Nick Tuszynski had his first double-double of the season with 12 points and a career high 17 rebounds for Loyola, while Brock led the Wolfpack offense with 14 points and Gray added 10 off the bench.
The Majors were led by Songy's 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, while Chris Ingle finished with 12 and Martinez added 11. Ingle also had a team-high nine rebounds.
Millsaps will open a 5-game homestand on Friday with the annual Turkey Shoot-Out.
