Pacific Can’t Keep Up With Loyola, 130-103

If this were a Dodger game, the fans would have started leaving in the third inning.

The track meet began in the opening seconds when Pacific decided to run with Loyola Marymount.

Five minutes into the game, Loyola had 24 points. With 12 minutes left in the first half, the Lions led, 43-19. They failed to maintain the 200-point pace but built 41-point leads on the way to a 79-40 halftime margin. The Lions broke 100 points 6 1/2 minutes into the second half.

The final score, 130-103, smashed Pacific’s record for most points allowed, previously 117 by Nevada Las Vegas, and was the second-highest total ever for Loyola. A crowd of 1,445 at Gersten Pavilion often looked like it was watching a tennis match instead of basketball.

The Lions (3-1) eventually built a 55-point lead, 117-62, and the Lions bench got so much playing time that Coach Paul Westhead said, “Our second team was flat-out exhausted.”

The first team got to rest on its laurels, which included 27 points, 4 of 5 three-point shooting and 14 assists by Corey Gaines, 25 points and 9 assists by Hank Gathers, 17 points by Mike Yoest, 14 points by Jeff Fryer, including 4 of 6 three-pointers, and 12 points by sixth-man Enoch Simmons.

Mark Armstrong, who added 9 rebounds, and Marcellus Lee had 9 points apiece.

Westhead credited a combination of sharp offense and full-court pressure defense for the early explosion.

“For that streak I don’t know what was the better,” he said.

He added a forecast future opponents won’t want to hear: “I don’t think we’ve got it really cranked yet. We’re still evolving.”

And guard Bo Kimble, expected to be one of Loyola’s top scorers, doesn’t rejoin the team for another 2 or 3 weeks, when a knee injury should be healed.

High scorer for Pacific (2-1) was Domingo Rosario, who played a strong game with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Next was freshman Dan Embick, who had five three-pointers in the last seven minutes for all of his 15 points.

The Lions played a near-perfect opening 12 minutes. Gathers scored 11 points in the first 5 minutes, and Gaines had 18 points and 11 assists by the half, when the game was virtually decided.

Loyola shot 60% in the first half and 51% for the game, and made 10 of 18 three-point attempts. Each team had 50 rebounds as they combined for 172 shots. The Lions also made 28 of 35 free throws.

Westhead said pressure defense is the reason his team is averaging 112 points.

“Our pressure defense has created more running,” he explained. “We make the opponent shoot. We’re not really mad if you make baskets on us because we score better off the score. We just hope you don’t take too long to do it.”

On Saturday, nothing took very long except adding up the scoring statistics.