Chicago, IL – After a slow, turnover driven start by Loyola’s star guard, Milton Doyle, his exceptional scoring lifted the Ramblers past the Toledo Rockets 69-62 early Saturday evening.
Doyle is a 6-4 combo guard who can score in bunches. He finished the game with 26 points, shooting 6-of-6 from the three-point line. Doyle’s smooth release and size at the guard position allowed him to get good looks, both off the ball and pulling up off the dribble. Doyle was aided throughout the game by 6-3 senior guard, Earl Peterson. Peterson finished the game with 18 points, with over half of them coming from the free throw line (10-of-15). He is a slashing guard, who was in attack mode all game. His quick first step allows him to blow past his defenders, and get to the basket with ease. He embraces contact, but still was able to focus on making the close range shots when he was fouled.
Milton Doyle
Toledo’s dominant first half was mostly due to Loyola’s inability to guard their 6-9 senior center Nathan Boothe, and their carelessness with the ball. Boothe is a very skilled big man who can score both facing and with his back to the basket. He finished the game with 29 points and 11 rebounds, going 12-of-24 from the field. Boothe has really nice feel for the game, and can even extend his range out to the three-point line. Loyola attempted to guard him one on one in the first half with Maurice Kirby (6-9 soph.) and Montel James (6-6 senior). Kirby was physically their best match up for Boothe but he did not effectively use his length at all. He seemed inexperienced and did not show any resistance against Boothe. James was more active and defended Booth a little better, but Boothe’s size and strength was just too much for James.
Jonathan Williams aided Boothe by contributing 15 points on 3-for-7 shooting from three-point range. Williams is a 6-4 junior guard, who was aggressive the entire game. After going 3-of-3 from long distance in the first half, he missed all four of his threes in the second half. Williams best attribute is his slashing ability, which he showed with multiple drives and finishes at the rim. His first shooting success may have hurt more than it helped Toledo as the game transpired.
Overall it was a game of two totally different half’s. Toledo and Boothe were able to control the game the first half, but then Loyola and Doyle was able to limit their turnovers and make the second half push to the win.
This article was written by Keith Smith, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.
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