Loyola Starts Slowly but Beats Santa Clara

After a sluggish start, Loyola Marymount perked up in the second half and defeated Santa Clara, 87-80, before a season-high crowd of 4,053 Thursday night at Gersten Pavilion.

Loyola got 18 second-half points from Hank Gathers and some timely 3-point shooting from Jeff Fryer to earn its second straight victory over a San Francisco Bay Area opponent in the West Coast Athletic Conference. The Lions defeated USF, 113-95, Wednesday night.

Loyola improved to 8-5 overall, 2-0 in the conference. Santa Clara, one of the favorites, is 11-4 overall but has stumbled to an 0-2 start in the WCAC.

The Lions, who came into the game averaging 116 points, struggled to get their running game in gear against the patient, taller Broncos. But a 3-minute blitz to open the second half helped the Lions build a 10-point lead, and they held off several Santa Clara charges.

“We want the game to be in the 100s. Santa Clara would like to be in the 60s,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said. “It was kind of like a compromise. Neither team really got what it wanted. We had to work extra hard on defense.”

Neither team shot impressively. Loyola hit 42% to Santa Clara’s 48.5%, but the Lions were better on 3-pointers, 8-3. Santa Clara was hurt by 29 turnovers and an 11-for-24 performance at the foul line.

Bronco Coach Carroll Williams said: “Early in the second half, it got away. We made too many passing mistakes that were self-imposed. We should have been up by 10 or 12 in the first half, but because of free throws and turnovers, we let it get away.”

Loyola not only failed to speed up the tempo in the first half, it took 3:20 to score its first point. The Lions managed a few quick baskets to take an 11-8 lead--with Gathers scoring 6 points--but Santa Clara countered with a 7-1 run and built a lead that reached 19-12.

Loyola made a move of its own, outscoring the Broncos, 8-2, to retake the lead, 22-21, with 8:30 left. The teams traded leads for the rest of the half, with Loyola’s Chris Knight hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 to produce a 39-37 halftime advantage.

At the beginning of the second half, the Lions’ pressure defense helped them establish a quicker pace, and they built a 60-50 lead midway through the period. Gathers, who was smothered for much of the game, warmed up in the last 10 minutes and helped foul out Santa Clara’s best big men, Jens Gordon and Nils Becker.

Santa Clara closed within 75-71 with 4:08 left, but Fryer scored 5 straight points, and the Lions were never seriously threatened again.

Mitch Burley scored 20 points to lead Santa Clara, with Osei Appiah adding 15. Loyola’s Per Stumer led all rebounders with 15, and Gathers had 10.