USIU’s 162-144 Loss Is One for the Books

Billy Tubbs, the University of Oklahoma basketball coach, has gone on record saying he wanted his Sooners to be the first team to score 90 points in a single half of a college basketball game.

Sorry, Billy, but Paul Westhead and Loyola Marymount beat you to it.

The Lions rolled up 93 points by halftime and didn’t stop there. LMU had found the perfect foil for its fast-paced brand of basketball in U.S. International and scored a 162-144 victory Saturday night at Golden Hall. Records were also set for most points by two teams and the most points by a losing team in a regulation game.

The 93 first-half points broke the record of 87 set by Tubbs’ Sooners against Oral Roberts this season. The combined 306 points broke the previous record of 302 set by LMU and Azusa Pacific this season, and the Gulls’ 144 points easily surpassed the 127 that Pepperdine scored in a loss to LMU last February.

A lot of people might be impressed with that kind of scoring orgy, but not Westhead.

“I don’t really get into that stuff much,” Westhead said. “I get into it this much: I want to see the team play the perfect game, see the team run a perfect break every time. Then we would be up around 240. One hundred and sixty is kind of dabbling in mediocrity.”

USIU Coach Gary Zarecky didn’t find anything mediocre about the game, except perhaps in the way the Gulls (6-10) played.

“When I see that video, I’m going to toss and turn because of what might have been,” Zarecky said. “We played terrible. I’m disappointed in our athletes, frankly. We choked, to be honest. We practiced for Loyola Marymount. We’ve played them before. We missed layups, slams, free throws, uncontested--and I underline--uncontested shots.

“But it’s a great game, I think, for our program. It was a positive thing tonight.”

But was it fun?

“You better believe it,” Zarecky said. “But you want to be on the other end. It’s not as much fun on this end.”

Loyola’s Hank Gathers led all scorers with 40 points and 23 rebounds, and Jeff Fryer added 30. Gary Williams had 40 points and 13 rebounds and Demetrius Laffitte added 34 points and 16 rebounds for USIU.

USIU and Loyola (6-5) went toe-to-toe for the first 6:23, and then USIU scored just 4 points in a span of 4:36. And in a game such as Saturday’s, that’s much too long a drought.

The Lions scored 20 in the span and led, 47-31, with 9:17 remaining in the half. USIU cut it to 52-39, but the Lions again went on a tear, scoring 14 consecutive points for a 66-39 lead with 6:25 left.

Enoch Simmons, who had a career-high 38 points, tied the one-half record on a drive over two USIU players at 1:31 and then broke it an 18-foot shot at 1:12. Simmons extended the record with another drive with 35 seconds remaining, and Gathers closed the book with drive to the left side with 14 seconds left. LMU led, 93-68, at the half.

The Gulls went to a zone defense in the second half and nearly got themselves back in the game.

With LMU leading, 109-80, with 17:24 remaining, USIU scored 12 consecutive points and trailed, 109-92. USIU pulled within 113-97 as Tim Moore scored on a drive to the basket and made the free throw after he was fouled by Simmons.

But the Lions then put any USIU comeback attempt away with a 27-8 run that gave LMU a 140-105 lead with 7:58 to go.

LMU had a chance to break the record of most points in a game by a team, which it shares with Nevada Las Vegas. The Lions beat Azusa Pacific, 164-138, this season. UNLV defeated Hawaii-Hilo, 164-111, in 1976.

Fryer made a free throw to give the Lions a 161-132 lead with 1:44 remaining, but LMU managed just one free throw as the bench played the rest of the game.

Loyola will get another chance though. The two teams play again in Los Angeles Jan. 31.