HAMMOND, La. – After more than a month away from Hammond, America, the Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team returns to the University Center on Friday, wrapping up non-conference play by hosting the Loyola Wolf Pack in the annual Christmas Game, featuring an ugly sweater contest and visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.
 
Tip-off of Friday's game between the Lions (5-6) and Wolf Pack (4-8) is set for 6 p.m. in the University Center and will be televised on ESPN+. A radio broadcast will also be available, thanks to the Southeastern Sports Radio Network, on 90.9 FM The Lion in the Hammond/Ponchatoula area and worldwide on LionSports.net/ListenLive or LionUpRadio.org, or you can listen to the game on smart devices through the Lions Gameday Experience app, the TuneIn Radio app, or the MyTuner Radio app. Live stats will also be available on LionSports.net.
 
46 days after the season-opener, and 10 games since hosting William Carey to begin the year, Southeastern returns to the University Center for the final non-conference game of the season, taking on Loyola. A win over the Wolf Pack would give SLU a winning record through the non-conference portion of its schedule for the first time since the 2016-17 squad finished 7-6 against non-Southland Conference teams.
 
The Lions are coming off of a 75-65 win over Grambling State on Monday, ending the 10-game road trip with a 4-6 record and included wins over Louisiana-Monroe, North Dakota, and Tulane. Sam Hines, Jr. led the way with 19 points against the Tigers while Kam Burton set a new career high with six made three-pointers in the win.
 
Hines, Jr. continues as Southeastern's top threat this season, averaging 15.3 points and is now hitting more than half of his shots on the season, scoring on 51.1 percent of his field goal attempts. He also connects on 40 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Hines, Jr. is SLU's top rebounder as well, grabbing 7.3 boards a game, while also dishing out 2.5 assists a game. On the defensive side, he's got 12 steals and seven blocked shots to his credit on the season.
 
Jakevion Buckley puts in 12.2 points per game while hitting 47.6 percent from the field this season. As the team's top ball-handler, he leads the team in assists, averaging 4.5 a game. He also grabs 3.5 rebounds a contest and leads the team in steals with 21, a 1.9 steal per game average.
 
Jeremy Elyzee has the team's best shooting percentage, making 52 percent of his attempts from the field. He also hits 35.3 percent from deep on his way to 9.9 points per game. Elyzee also secures 4.8 rebounds a game and blocks a shot per contest which leads the team.
 
After his big day at Grambling, Burton is now hitting 42.5 percent from the field and 42.4 percent from above the arc with a team-high 28 made three-pointers. That gives him a 9.5 points per game average while also grabbing 2.9 rebounds a contest.
 
Brody Rowbury has the best free throw percentage on the team, hitting 92.6 percent from the charity stripe, having connected on 25 of his 27 from the line. He scores 8.2 points per game while securing 5.4 rebounds a contest.
 
The Lions average 69.9 points per game on the season while hitting 44.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range. SLU gives up 67.8 points per game while opponents are hitting 41.9 percent from the field and 29 percent from deep against Southeastern.
 
Loyola, representing the NAIA's Southern States Athletic Conference, comes into Friday's game on a bit of a high, having won three of its last four contests after a 1-7 start to the season. On Tuesday, the Wolf Pack picked up their first SSAC win of the season with a wire-to-wire 74-65 road win over Thomas University of Georgia.
 
Leonard Jackson led the way for the Wolf Pack with 21 points against the Night Hawks, hitting six of his 10 shot attempts in the game, including three-of-five from deep, while also grabbing six rebounds.
 
Jaylen Peters scored 18 points and gathered in eight rebounds to go with an assist and a steal.
 
Braelee Albert ended the evening just one rebound shy of a double-double with 14 points, nine boards, and a couple of steals.
 
Kameron Johnson filled his stat line with 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals, and a block.
 
Milan Mejia was one point shy of a double-double himself, scoring nine points while grabbing 10 rebounds. He also picked up four steals in the win.
 
Loyola got to the foul line early and often against Thomas, and made the Night Hawks pay, going 28-of-30 on free throw attempts. That helped overcome a 36.2 percent shooting night for the Wolf Pack, who also shot just 18.2 percent from beyond the arc in the win, which included missing all nine three-point attempts in the second half.
 
Mejia, one of three student-athletes from the 2021-22 NAIA National Championship-winning Wolf Pack team still on the squad, is Loyola's top scorer as 12.8 points per game. He hits 39.7 percent from the field, including 34.1 percent from three on his way to a team-high 30 made threes, while grabbing 4.5 rebounds a game. His 18 steals leads the team while he has 22 assists to his credit as well.
 
Albert averages 11.1 points per game while hitting 38.6 percent from the field while his 6.3 rebounds per game is the most on the Loyola team so far this season. He's blocked seven shots this season, also the most this season for the Wolf Pack.
 
Kosta Bjelicic has the best shooting percentage on the Wolf Pack at 51.8 percent on his way to 9.9 points per game. He's also responsible for 4.9 rebounds a contest.
 
Jackson, one of the other two members of the national championship team still at Loyola, hits 49.4 percent from the field as he scores 9.8 points per game. He grabs 3.9 rebounds per contest as well. The third member of the national championship team still playing for Loyola is Troy Thomas, who has appeared in five games all off the bench this season.
 
Loyola averages 71.9 points per game while hitting 42.1 percent from the field as a team and 31.2 percent from three-point range this season. Wolf Pack opponents are averaging 74 points per game, hitting 41.7 percent from the field and 29 percent from beyond the arc. Friday's game is an exhibition for Loyola.
 
These two teams generally saw each other twice a year in the late-1940s and 1950s with the series being generally even as Loyola won nine of the first 15. Southeastern's win over Loyola in the 1966-67 season, the last time the Lions visited the Wolf Pack, started what is currently a 14-game win streak for SLU, the last 13 of which coming during Southeastern's Division I era after Loyola restarted its athletics program as a NAIA squad back in the early 1990s following a long hiatus. SLU leads the all-time series against Loyola, 20-9.
 
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners.  All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.