Loyola Basketball Coach Sees a Big Year for Women; Opener Saturday

Todd Corman hopes this season will prove that his Loyola Marymount University women’s basketball team has finally arrived.

Corman is entering his fifth season as coach of the Lady Lions with what he says is the best team he has coached at the college level. Four of last season’s five starters are among eight returning players.

“The team itself has thoughts that they will be better than last year,” Corman said. “That’s the best attitude to have.”

Last season the Lions had their best year ever, going 17-11 overall and 9-5 in the West Coast Conference. It was good enough for third place in the league.

The season opener will be at home Nov. 25 against Eastern Illinois University at 5:15, preceding the men’s 7:30 home opener.

The toughest conference competition Corman says they will face will be from St. Mary’s, the University of San Diego and Gonzaga. St. Mary’s was tabbed the preseason favorite by WCC coaches.

“We are also taking on a lot of tough teams back East, and I think that will make us tougher in conference because we will be playing consistently good teams all season,” Corman said.

“Fatigue will be the big factor. It’s a long season and it’s going to take a team effort to do well.”

The overall record (40-74) that Corman has posted in four years is not impressive, but it does show an improvement every year. In 1985-86 the team was 3-25; 1986-87 it improved to 5-23; the breakthrough year came in 1987-88 at 15-15 and improved again last year to 17-11.

“Stability is what I have brought to the program,” Corman said. “My philosophy is pretty much the same as when I started the program, and that lets the players know what I expect from them.”

Kristen Bruich and Tricia Gibson may be slow to start the season after knee surgery and long rehabilitation over the off season. Corman expects them to be in top condition by mid-season.

Corman said defense has been the key to the turnaround he and assistant Cynthia Pereira-Atencio have engineered. Gibson, a 6-foot-3 junior center, led the conference with 39 blocked shots and had 135 rebounds last season. She was second on the team with 29 steals. She also did her part on offense, averaging 9.7 points per game.

Bruich, the emotional leader of the Lions, led the team with 71 steals and 943 minutes of play. The 5-foot-8 junior point guard was second in scoring with an average of 10.5 points.

The biggest loss is Regan O’Hara, who completed her eligibility. O’Hara led the team with 195 rebounds and was second with 50 steals. She averaged 9.7 points and led the team in free throws by converting 107 of 144.

“Regan was the leader on the floor. It’s going to be real tough to replace that,” Corman said. “There may be some who are better physically than Regan, but experience isn’t something you can teach. She understood my playing concepts better than anyone else.”

Michelle Bettencourt, a 6-foot senior forward/center, was second in rebounds with 174 and blocked shots with 16.

The scoring leader for Loyola is Lynn Flanagan, a 5-foot-8 junior guard who had 11.2 points per game last season and converted 63 of 88 free-throw attempts. Coming on strong in conference play, she scored in double figures in 19 of 28 games and got her career high of 21 against St. Mary’s.

Also seeing playing time will be senior Chris Hagemann, sophomores Jamie Jesko, Nicole Taylor and Joelle Longobardi and freshmen Joell Coltrane and Trish McDonough. Corman prefers to play most of his roster and not build around one or two stars.

“How well we play is going to depend on us controlling the tempo of the game, and that’s the job of the defense,” Corman said. “We don’t have one really dominating player, but they’re all very consistent and over the course of a season that alone is going to win games.”