When It Comes to Basketball, Loyola’s Lions Have the Horses

It was Groucho Marx who once said: “I’d horsewhip you if I had a horse.”

Loyola Marymount’s basketball team has the horses, and lately the Lions have been horsewhipping opponents who were supposed to be their toughest competition.

The latest was Pepperdine, which fell in Malibu, 107-95, as Loyola clinched a tie for the West Coast Athletic Conference title. The rivals have a return engagement Saturday at Loyola, but whatever the outcome, Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick is already impressed.

After Wednesday’s game, in which Loyola pulled away in the second half, Harrick called the Lions “the best WCAC team we’ve faced since I’ve been in the conference.” Harrick has been in the conference since the 1979-80 season and has had nationally ranked teams himself as well as strong competition in the early 1980s from the University of San Francisco, which featured Quintin Dailey.

Harrick said: “I want to give them credit--they came in here and beat us. They just did everything they’ve been doing to other teams. We rely on three or four scorers and they’ve got six.” He said the Lions not only deserve their No. 20 rating in the polls but could well be in the top 15.

Harrick, whose team played several highly ranked schools before the start of conference, said the Lions compare favorably with Arizona, a former No. 1 in the wire service polls. “We’ve been all over the country, and on a given night (Loyola) can play with anybody in the country. They could beat Arizona on a given night.”

Wednesday’s game was the first time in nearly two years that Tom Lewis, Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers have been on the same basketball floor in a collegiate game. The last time was when the trio were freshmen at USC.

All were on their games Wednesday. Lewis, who leads the WCAC in scoring with a 22.8-point average, scored six quick points, then wasn’t much of a factor the rest of the first half. He had only nine at intermission but ended up hitting 10 of 17 shots for 25 points. He added 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Kimble, who has been a scoring machine in February, averaging 27.3 points in the last seven games, hit a career-high 32 on 11 of 19, including four three-pointers. He had 5 rebounds. And Gathers, playing against taller opponents in the middle, hit 10 of 21 shots for 20 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

At one point, Lewis and Kimble were jostling each other and were warned for throwing elbows.

The rivalry was friendly, though. After the game they were seen together talking with an interested spectator--former USC Coach Stan Morrison, who recruited all three for the Trojans.

Kimble has not only been Loyola’s hottest scorer lately but the hottest free throw shooter in the conference as well. After hitting all six foul shots against Pepperdine on Wednesday, Kimble has hit 26 straight and 27 of his last 28. The streak has raised his season percentage to a team-high .857, and in conference he has hit 39 of 45, an .867 rate. Kimble’s accurate shooting has moved him into second in the WCAC, just behind St. Mary’s Robert Haugen at .861. Haugen had a streak of 28 straight ended last week.

Record Department: Several team and school basketball records were set around the West Coast Athletic Conference last week. Loyola’s 73-point half against San Francisco set a record, while USF guard Keith Jackson’s 47 points against Loyola was a school mark and the sixth highest ever in WCAC play.

Gonzaga set a school record by shooting 54 free throws against San Diego, which was in on a league record the previous night. Against the Toreros, Portland shot 2 for 25 in the first half and 9 for 55 overall. The 8% first-half accuracy was a new league low, and the 16.4% for the game was just a whisker off the league mark of 16.3.

Cal State Dominguez Hills has won two straight conference baseball titles on strong defense and pitching and timely hitting, but they may have a new look this season. Though the Toros dropped their two-game season-opening series at Arizona, they scored 13 runs and five players hit home runs. Jeff Sears had an excellent series, going 4 for 8 with a homer and 5 runs batted in. Bob Gonzales, Damon Neidlinger, Rick Davis and Ruben Jauregui also homered. One of the losses was a wild 10-8 game in which Jauregui and Davis homered in the ninth, but the Toros left the tying run on second.

Unfortunately for the pitchers, the Toros committed seven errors.

In their first victory of the season, Dominguez exploded for 19 runs against Master’s College, with Sears collecting two home runs and 6 RBI. Jauregui and Neidlinger also homered.

The Toros golfers, 3-0 in dual matches, will get their first big test Monday in the Pacific Coast intercollegiate invitational at Western Hills Country Club in Orange County. Cal State Fullerton is the host.

One of the additions to the team who has been a surprising find for Coach John Johnson is senior Mike Perryman, who previously played baseball at Dominguez Hills. Perryman is carrying an average of 80 after five rounds, second on the team to Rick Chartrand’s 79.4. Jeff Manare, expected to be the team leader, is next at 80.2, followed by Enrico Montano (80.4) and Sean McManaman (82.2). Brett Bobb, who has played only one round, helped the Toros defeated Cal State San Bernardino last week when he shot a 77.

College Notes

Greg Spruell, a guard from Carson High, helped Cypress College clinch the Orange Empire Conference basketball title when he scored a career high 17 points in a 74-72 victory over Rancho Santiago. Spruell averages about 6 points. Also instrumental was guard Karl Becker, a Redondo graduate. He scored 12. . . . Staci Broussard has set a record for assists per game for the Idaho State women’s basketball team. The senior from Inglewood, who is averaging 5.7 assists this season, needs 36 more assists to break the school record of 405. . . . Darryl May, a little-used guard at Gonzaga out of Serra High, played a season-high 23 minutes last week in a victory over San Diego and responded with a career-high 11 points, 10 in the first half as Gonzaga built a 17-point lead. May hadn’t played more than 8 minutes in a game before.