Loyola Cagers Looking for Some Gain With Their Pain

The Loyola Marymount basketball team came into the gym after running laps around the soccer field one day last week--puffing, sweating and looking forward to practice Sunday after more than a month of tough conditioning.

One of those happy to be feeling the pain was senior guard Bo Kimble, whose tagline the last two seasons has been: lots of pain, no gain.

Bo knows pain. The 6-foot-5 shooting machine managed to put up some big numbers for Loyola in spite of knee injuries that sidelined him for a month as a sophomore and required arthroscopic surgery as a junior.

From the bench last season, he watched boyhood friend Hank Gathers lead the NCAA in scoring and rebounding. For the player who can stand up to the rigors of Coach Paul Westhead’s system, gaudy statistics and a potential spot high in the pro draft await. Indeed, with Kimble seeing what amounted to spot action, the Lions still shattered the NCAA scoring record, averaging 112.5 points per game.

Westhead and Kimble himself have continued to assert that nobody has seen the player at 100%, although he has had some scorching performances--scoring 68 points in two games the same week against Pepperdine as a sophomore and 40 points in a game last season against Gonzaga. Part of Kimble’s physical problems last season were laid on him for sloughing off on his summer rehabilitation exercises.

And last season, when several games were lost in the final minute, Loyola was left wondering what might have been with a healthy Kimble in the lineup.

That’s all in the past, Kimble said. Showing off a new, buffed-up physique, Kimble is coming off a summer in which he led Philadelphia’s summer league in scoring and, he says, faithfully stuck to his rehab exercises. “I shot 500 baskets a day,” he said. “That’s my job. This is gonna be a big year. You’ve never seen anything like you’re gonna see this year at Loyola. We’re gonna break (scoring) records all the time.”

The Dominguez Hills soccer teams appear to be headed in opposite directions after the men suffered another tough conference loss Wednesday and the women continue to roll along at 13-1.

The men bowed to Cal State Northridge, 1-0, to fall to 0-2-1 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and 6-5-1 overall. They need to win virtually all their remaining CCAA games to have a shot at the title.

Marine Cano, who coaches both teams, had high hopes for the men, who returned a veteran lineup from last year’s CCAA co-champion team. But the Toros’ offense has had trouble rolling. In their conference opener last week, they needed a late goal by Martin Mira to tie Chapman, 1-1. Over the weekend, a strong Cal State Bakersfield team took a 3-0 lead and held off the Toros, 3-2. Wednesday’s loss to No. 4 Northridge was a heart-breaker, with the Matadors scoring the game’s only goal 88 minutes into play.

“We’re struggling. We can still (contend) with seven games left,” Cano said. “My concern right now is to get a W (win) on the board. It’s not that we’re playing badly--of the three (CCAA) games we’ve played we’ve dominated all three--but we’re losing. Our offensive punch is not there. I’ve got to find a way to give ‘em some kind of punch, maybe make a couple little changes.”

Among the ploys Cano has tried is getting thrown out by the officials Wednesday, when hefelt Northridge was getting the calls. “It seemed like (the referee) was being lazy. I said, ‘You’re not running.’ Boom, I was gone. I wasn’t worried about being ejected. I wanted to give (the team) a boost,” he said. “But then a minute later Mira gets ejected and we play the rest of the game 10-on-11. We just couldn’t mount any kind of attack.”

Cano said the other CCAA teams may be discounting the Toros at this point, which should take off the pressure. “Now maybe we can play loose and have some fun. Maybe that’s what we need,” he said.

The Toros resume CCAA play Saturday at Cal Poly Pomona.

The women, ranked No. 2 in Division II, should get a good test at home Sunday against unbeaten UC San Diego, which is ranked No. 2 in Division III.

On a roll (sort of): Since snapping a six-game losing streak, the Loyola Marymount men’s soccer team has won two of its last three games and hopes to make it two in a row Saturday afternoon at home against Cal Lutheran. The Lions, 3-10, got their first victory against a Division I opponent Tuesday at home, defeating U.S. International, 2-1. In the last three games the Lions have scored seven goals after managing only four in the first 10 games.

The hot player for Loyola in the last week has been junior forward Ken Warcholik, whose goal against USIU on Tuesday gave him four, tying him with Jan Klein for the team lead. Halfback Eric Hill, another freshman, also scored his second goal of the season. Freshman forward Tom White assisted on both scores.

There is a downside, however. Over the weekend, the Lions played a West Coast Conference game at the University of San Francisco, a Top 10 team that manhandled them, 9-0.

College Notes: Dominguez Hills’ volleyball match tonight against top-ranked UC Riverside will be televised on Paragon Cable. Paragon also will show volleyball matches Nov. 3 against Cal State Northridge and Nov. 10 against Cal State Bakersfield. It’s part of a package deal with Paragon that includes five upcoming men’s basketball games. The games will be shown on a tape-delay basis. . . . The Dominguez Hills women’s volleyball team set several team records last week. Maria Romero set one with seven service aces in a match against Cal State San Bernardino, helping the Lady Toros set a team record with 18 aces. Freshman Angela Hamer set another mark for hitting percentage with a .520 success rate in one game, and transfer Julie Berthiaume set a fourth record by recording seven block assists. . . . In West Coast Conference volleyball, Loyola setter Anita Irwin is third in assist average at 10.15 per game. Santa Clara’s Julie Jamile of Torrance is next at 9.56. . . . Loyola junior Kerry House and freshman Dana Bragado have entered the WCC leaders in service ace average at .60 per game. . . . Dominguez Hills women’s soccer standout Kristi White needs one goal to match the school career record of 29. She has extended her school career record for points to 84.