Loyola Is Outrun by St. Mary’s : Gaels’ 116-104 Win Pushes Lions Out of First Place in WCAC

The anticipated showdown--Loyola Marymount’s offense of the Nineties (and usually hundreds) against the timeless defense of St. Mary’s--failed to materialize Friday as St. Mary’s showed it could beat Loyola at its own game.

The gallop was in the Gaels as they ran away to a 116-104 victory before a sellout crowd of 4,366 at Gersten Pavilion.

The victory allowed St. Mary’s (18-2) to remain tied for first place in the West Coast Athletic Conference at 6-1 going into tonight’s game with co-leader Pepperdine at Malibu. Loyola is 12-8 and 5-2 going into tonight’s home game against San Diego.

The Gaels came to Los Angeles with a well-earned reputation for defense, ranking second in the nation in points allowed (54.7 per game) and shooting percentage (39%). Loyola countered with its 113.4-point average, best in the nation.

But St. Mary’s Coach Lynn Nance said his team can score, too.

“We’ve been running well all year,” he said. “People who have played us have been trying to stop us from running, because we’ve been very effective. It’s too bad we’re stereotyped (as being all defense). We’ve been scoring quite a few points.”

St. Mary’s output Friday was the second-highest in school history, paced by senior forward Robert Haugen’s career-high 37.

Loyola’s Hank Gathers, who scored 39 points, said: “They surprised us. They went straight at us. They played the game to win instead of not to lose. They did an excellent job of capitalizing on our mistakes.”

The first half was played at the fast pace Loyola wanted, but with an unexpected twist: St. Mary’s liked the running just fine.

After trading baskets for a 10-10 tie, St. Mary’s pulled away to a lead that reached 36-21 with 8:02 left in the half as Haugen scored inside with ease.

Behind Gathers’ 22 first-half points, the Lions fought back to within 43-34 with 3:27 to go. But the Gaels spent the rest of the half rebuilding their lead to 55-41 by halftime, outshooting the Lions, 17-4, from the foul line.

The Gaels extended the lead to 100-77 with 5:47 to play before Loyola made a charge in the last minutes, going on a 9-0 run to make the score respectable.

Haugen hit all seven of his shots in the second half and finished 14 for 16 with 13 rebounds. Forwards Erick Newman (18) and James Dailey (17) led four other Gaels in double figures.

Gathers, who hit 18 of 24 shots and added 18 rebounds, had little help from his normally explosive teammates. Jeff Fryer added 16 points, Per Stumer 12 and Enoch Simmons 10. The Gaels outshot Loyola, 64% to 45%, and held the Lions to six 3-pointers.

“We created the game we wanted. We just weren’t able to finish it off,” Lion Coach Paul Westhead said. “We had an offensive problem more than a defensive problem.”