COLLEGE NOTES : Loyola Cagers Run Out of Gas, but Coach Thinks He’ll Get Them Revved Up Again
It wasn’t the most artistic game and both teams will have sharper performances this season, but for thrills and spills, Loyola’s 102-91 loss to Nevada Las Vegas was a success.
Though Loyola eventually ran out of gas, and UNLV looked beatable in missing two of its big men, both coaches saw some positive aspects of the opening round match-up in the preseason National Invitation Tournament.
Loyola led at the half, 54-52, but Lions Coach Paul Westhead said he already saw signs his team’s energy was flagging. “We had a little trouble sustaining,” he said. “We usually need five or six games (to hit peak form). We almost pulled it off. We’re like a car that’s running out of gas. We don’t conserve energy. We exceed the speed limit. Perhaps at this time (of the season) it’s not humanly possible.
“I was a little concerned into the second half--I saw as a group our team was tired. The guys did a nice job of hanging on but there were, early on, signs of being tired.”
The Lions took it to UNLV in the first half, flustering the Rebels with a tougher press than expected and running off a 20-2 spurt to build a nine-point lead. But just when the Lions had things going their way, a phoned-in bomb threat halted play for several minutes while the Thomas and Mack Center was checked.
Upon resuming play, Loyola guard Tony Walker lost the in-bounds pass and committed a foul trying to steal it back, and UNLV clawed back into the game. “I thought (UNLV) was tired,” Westhead said. “We shouldn’t have had a halftime break or a bomb scare break.”
UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said his No. 1-ranked team took the challenge of running with the Lions. “The best way to play ‘em is don’t run with ‘em,” Tarkanian said, “but that’s not our style (to back down). We have our pride. We figured they want to run, we’ll run.”
Naturally, with two teams known for their run-and-gun offense facing off, defense decided it. Loyola’s press hampered the Rebels in the first half. UNLV’s rarely used zone slowed Loyola in the second half.
“We stayed in the zone as long as we could,” Tarkanian said. “For about 10 minutes it really helped us, it gave us a chance to keep our guys out of foul trouble.” UNLV was playing without starting center David Butler and rugged forward Moses Scurry, both academically ineligible but expected to return to the team soon. Another center, George Accles, is out with a broken wrist.
“Their press bothered us more than it should. (But) we beat ‘em without Accles, Scurry and Butler. We’re gonna be OK,” said Tarkanian.
Westhead got some strong play from forward Per Stumer, who had to cover bullish Larry Johnson for much of the game, and from Terrell Lowery, Tom Peabody and John O’Connell off the bench. Stumer got 10 rebounds and though Johnson scored 24 points, he was harassed into committing eight turnovers. Lowery scored 15 points and hit five of six shots in the first half, and Peabody’s intensity was one of the keys to Loyola’s first-half run. Westhead was also pleased with Walker’s debut at point guard.
“We’ve got the whole season left,” Westhead said. “We’ll bounce out of this in a positive way.”
Tarkanian noted: “I’d hate to play ‘em again. I didn’t feel good at halftime, and I don’t feel good now. It was the type of game, after it’s over you’re still afraid they’re gonna come at you.”
Tarkanian made an unusual move after the game, going into Loyola’s locker room to apologize for several confrontations between UNLV and Loyola players, including some loud verbal exchanges beneath the stands after the game.
Tarkanian shook several Lions players’ hands and told them: “You guys played a hell of a game. I’m sorry for what happened. I’ve got a lot of respect for you guys. You scared the (bleep) out of me. You still do.”
Tarkanian’s gesture apparently made some friends. The Loyola team applauded as he bid them adieu. One yelled, “Win ‘em all, coach.”
As expected, Loyola Marymount signed two more basketball recruits during the early signing period: Ross Richardson, a 6-foot-7 swing man from Flint, Mich., and Craig Holt, a 6-3 guard from West Valley Community College in Northern California.
Richardson, a senior at Central High, averaged 13.5 points as a junior and is projected as a shooting guard because of three-point accuracy. He is also the quarterback on Central’s football team and a highly considered baseball pitcher. He has a 3.96 grade-point average and was sought by Ivy League schools.
Holt, a sophomore, is a Santa Clara native who averaged 26 points as a senior at Aptos High and 14 points last season as a freshman. He is in the honors program at West Valley and is considered “by far the best shooter I’ve ever been around” by his coach, 20-year veteran Bob Burton.
College Notes: Loyola junior forward Marcus Slater has a sprained knee ligament and will miss two to three weeks. Teammate Chris Scott, a freshman forward, broke a bone near his left thumb and will wear a cast for three weeks before beginning rehabilitation . . . The Loyola water polo team finished fourth in the Western Water Polo Assn. Tournament and closed the season with a 9-13 record. Tim Waggoner led the Lions with 41 goals and was named to the All-Western Water Polo Assn. first team.