Loyola’s Gathers Will Return to Practice Next Week

Loyola Marymount’s Hank Gathers will sit out Saturday night’s game against Oklahoma but has been given medical clearance to return to practice next week.

Gathers missed Tuesday night’s 117-113 victory at Oregon State while undergoing a second battery of medical tests to determine why he blacked out during a game on Dec. 9. He has registered normal on all of the tests, but doctors want him to rest this week after undergoing two more days of examinations.

The 6-foot-7, 210-pound Gathers, who led the nation in scoring and rebounding last season, had played 96 consecutive games in his college career--including 69 in a row at Loyola after transferring from USC--before having to sit out this week’s pair of games.

“All the tests they did indicate that I am in great physical condition. I feel fine and I’m still the strongest man in the country,” Gathers said after being released from Daniel Freeman Hospital Wednesday. “I’m still sore from all the testing . . . I guess what happened to me was just one of those things.”

Doctors found no apparent reason for Gathers’ fainting and assume it was an “isolated insidious incident.” He had no history of blackouts and had never been hospitalized before the brief spell, which occurred in against UC Santa Barbara.