Phil Alston was the Vulcans’ Star Forward last year on the teams’ run into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. He led the team in scoring, rebounds, assists, and steals.

It was quite the shock to the team when Alston announced he was entering the Transfer Portal. With offers coming from local schools like Pitt, WVU, and several other national offers, Alston chose to go to Loyola Chicago University.

“It was the culture that Loyola has I knew it was home,” said Alston. “I wanted to go somewhere I could win a lot of games and play ball, and it felt like home as soon as I stepped on campus. It’s definitely been a change, a lot easier than I thought but it has been a change with the size and athleticism. Definitely miss the people at Cal, I still talk to everyone in our group chat from last year.”

Alston’s style of play did not change as he would have 8 double digit scoring in his first 10 games as a Rambler, two of them he would have a double-double.

“My 3 ball was working well tonight it felt good”, Said Alston. “I thought it opened up my shooting for the rest of the season so that’s one thing I will take away from tonight.”

Vulcan Fans were excited to hear that he would be returning to Southwestern Pennsylvania as the Ramblers would take on the Dukes of Duquesne. Alston put up a season high of 25 points in the loss to the Dukes with 4 rebounds and a season high 5 3-pointers made, and 10 3-pointers attempted.