Gathers, Fryer Lead Loyola Over Santa Clara

Toso Pavilion is normally tough on visiting teams, but Loyola Marymount continued a two-year roll here Friday night with a 112-101 victory over the Broncos.

Before a vocal, standing-room crowd of about 5,000, the Lions got 32 points apiece from Hank Gathers and Jeff Fryer and forced 22 Santa Clara turnovers to improve to 17-9 overall and 10-3 in the West Coast Athletic Conference.

The Loyola victory, coupled with Pepperdine’s loss at USF, pulled the Lions into a second-place tie with the Waves, a game behind St. Mary’s, going into tonight’s regular-season finale at USF.

The loss dropped Santa Clara into fifth place at 6-7 (17-9 overall), a game behind USF.

Santa Clara is 26-5 on its homecourt over the last two seasons, with three of the losses being to Loyola. Counting last year’s WCAC tournament, Loyola has won five straight games at Toso.

Fryer was responsible for much of Loyola’s early success, hitting five three-pointers in the first half, and also made two three-pointers down the stretch to thwart Santa Clara. He finished with seven of the Lions’ 10 three-pointers, while the Broncos hit only two.

Fryer also contributed four key rebounds. Gathers led both teams with 15.

“We got a terrific effort from Jeff Fryer on the boards,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said.

“Fryer was the difference in not letting them come back. His shooting was uncanny. A couple times, most of the people and a couple players didn’t know the ball was inbounds, and he was shooting the three-pointer.”

In a sometimes sloppy first half, there were 25 turnovers--15 by Santa Clara.

Loyola pulled ahead for the first time at 15-14 on a Fryer three-pointer, one of seven the Lions hit before halftime in building a 53-44 lead. Loyola led by as many as 15 points in the first half.

Gathers, held in check for much of the half, had 10 points in the final 6:39 before halftime to pace a 16-8 run.

The Broncos ate away at the lead quickly in the second half, pulling within 71-66 as Mitch Burley hit their first three-pointer.

But Loyola answered with a 15-0 run, all but two of the points being scored by Fryer and Gathers, and Loyola pulled away to a 86-66 lead.

Santa Clara made a final late charge, getting within 102-94 with two minutes left, but Enoch Simmons rebuilt the lead to 10 by following in his own miss, and Gathers added six more points before the buzzer as Loyola coasted, despite a total of 20 turnovers.

The teams’ combined 213 points set a Toso Pavilion record.

Forward Jens Gordon led Santa Clara with 28 points, making 13 of 16 shots, and 13 rebounds before fouling out.

Westhead said: “Anytime you can win on the road, it’s a good win. We put good pressure on with our defense. The defense created the turnovers.”

Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams said: “We just had too many turnovers. We didn’t want to take a quick shot; that was our game plan. We were too frantic and out of control in the first half, and 15 turnovers (in the first half) doesn’t get it done.”