SCOREFEST : In Only Two Games, Loyola and USIU Pile Up 637 Points

Loyola Marymount and United States International University scored two points every 14 1/2 seconds. A shot went up every 11 seconds. Loyola won, 181-150, and a point was scored for every eight fans at the Lions’ Gersten Pavilion.

Those 2,661 saw one crazy game Tuesday night.

So crazy, in fact, the official scorer wrote Whew!! at the bottom of the shot chart. And one referee thanked another for calling a foul just “to get the play stopped” for a minute.

It was the highest-scoring college game ever, breaking five National Collegiate Athletic Assn. records for offense and ending a home-and-home series during which 637 points were scored.

Loyola broke the 100-point barrier on an eight-foot jumper by Enoch Simmons with 56 seconds gone in the second half.

“If we had left our starters in, I think we could have scored 200,” said Loyola’s Jeff Fryer, a former star at Corona del Mar High School.

The 331 total points broke the record of 306 that Loyola and USIU set Jan. 7, when the Lions beat the Gulls, 162-144.

The game also set records for most points by one team, most points by a losing team, most points by one team in the first half (94 for Loyola) and most points by both teams in the first half (170).

The previous record for most points by one team was 164 in 1976 by Nevada Las Vegas and equaled in Loyola’s season-opener against Azusa Pacific. USIU’s total points and the halftime scores broke marks from the Jan. 7 game.

“Everything happens so rapidly you really don’t have time to say, ‘Wow, look at that score,’ ” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said. “We just don’t ever think about that. It’s a rapid-fire kind of game. You kind of wake up about 3 o’clock in the morning thinking about it.”

At times, it seemed humanly impossible to play much faster than the two teams did Tuesday night.

For example, Loyola outscored USIU, 11-9, in one frantic stretch late in the game--20 points in 1 minute 34 seconds. Average: 2 points every 9.4 seconds.

--5:26 to play: Algenoid Banks 10-footer for USIU. Loyola leads, 154-130.

--5:16: Fryer 3-pointer for Loyola, 157-130.

--5:07: Paul Wilson 8-footer for USIU, 157-132.

--4:59: Hank Gathers two free throws for Loyola, 158-132.

--4:53: Wilson layup for USIU, 158-134.

--4:44: Gathers layup for Loyola, 160-134.

--4:22: Marcellus Lee free throw for Loyola.

--4:14: Lee layup for Loyola, 163-134.

--3:57: Demetrius Laffitte free throw for USIU, 163-137.

-- 3:52: Lee dunk for Loyola, 165-137.

With 3:52 to play, the game slowed down. There wasn’t another basket scored for 20 seconds.

The longest stretch between baskets in the game was 59 seconds, the shortest, 2 seconds.

Bill McCabe, 46, one of three referees who worked the game, said at one point official Gary Bunker thanked him for stopping play with a foul “because he wanted to take a blow.”

During a game, Westhead said he doesn’t have time for much of anything other than watching the action.

“You really can’t tell a player, ‘Nice shot,’ because about three or four shots are made by the time you get time,” he said. “You can’t question an official about a call because he’ll say, ‘Which one?’ Everything’s just at such an incredible up-speed.”

Because of the big lead, Westhead said his team slowed down at the end. After scoring 11 points in the 1:34 stretch, Loyola scored only 16 more in the final 3:52.

“Not whimsically, I think had the game been closer, we would have stayed firing out. We missed some foul shots and we were flat for a while, but that’s human nature,” Westhead said. “We also tried to get some people some playing time, so we had the reserves in.

“If it had been a 5-point game, we’d have been over 200. But that’s for another night.”

Said Fryer: “Coach thinks we can score 240 points in a game. I don’t know about that.”

The game left USIU Coach Gary Zarecky with mixed feelings. “We’ve been taking on the establishment and gaining respectability,” Zarecky said. “But we can’t keep on being the Washington Generals playing the Harlem Globetrotters.” USIU is 8-14.

Loyola’s next game is against St. Mary’s Friday in a matchup of the nation’s top scoring team and the country’s second-best defensive club. Loyola (12-7) is averaging 113.5 points; St. Mary’s (17-2) is allowing 54.7 points.

“If we are capable of scoring half of what we got last night, we’ll be in great shape against St. Mary’s,” said Gathers, who led Loyola with 41 points and a school-record 29 rebounds.

Loyola and St. Mary’s are tied for first place in the West Coast Athletic Conference along with Pepperdine. All have 5-1 records.

“It’s almost the first in defense against the first in offense,” Westhead said. “I’ll be happy for a compromise and have the game in the low hundreds.”