It’s Time for the Shootout at Westchester : College basketball: Loyola will be without Gathers in tonight’s game against another 200-point candidate, Oklahoma.

For two years, Loyola Marymount and Oklahoma have been ballyhooed as the most probable candidates to scale the Mt. Everest of college basketball--the 200-point peak.

The two will meet at 9 tonight at Loyola’s sold-out Gersten Pavilion in Westchester for what is thought of nationally as a collegiate shootout at the OK Corral. Sooner Coach Billy Tubbs said last month: “First team to 200 wins. But you’ve got to win by four.”

Last year’s game in Norman, Okla., lived up to expectations for a half, but Loyola wilted, and Oklahoma won easily, 136-103.

Tonight’s game, which will be televised by ESPN, figures to be entertaining and probably more competitive than last year’s contest, even though Loyola’s big man, Hank Gathers, will not play.

Generally, however, scoring records aren’t set in games like this. When two competitive running teams get together, they tend to play defense, whether it looks like it or not. Witness the Sooners’ 89-81 victory over Nevada Las Vegas earlier this month, and UNLV’s 102-91 win over Loyola in November.

Records are set against teams like U.S. International and Angelo State.

Still, there will be some points scored. Loyola (6-1) goes in averaging 120 points a game, with a high of 152 against USIU. Oklahoma (4-0), which has not played in two weeks, goes in averaging 134.5, with a high of 173 against--you guessed it--USIU.

The Sooners may not have a dominating man in the middle, but without Gathers the Lions could have trouble containing Oklahoma’s front line of forwards Jackie Jones and William Davis and center Tony Martin, a former standout at Manual Arts High School. The three have combined for averages of 51.5 points and 28.6 rebounds, with Davis leading the team in both categories with 22 points and 12.8 rebounds.

The Oklahoma backcourt, featuring 6-foot-7 Skeeter Martin and freshman Terry Evans, is also explosive, combining for an average of 38 points. Off the bench, guard Smokey McCovery is averaging 16 points.

“They’ve got some athletes,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said.

Loyola counters with Bo Kimble, who has scored 51 and 53 points in his last two games--plus 57 in an exhibition against Athletes in Action--to raise his average to a nation-leading 34.4, and Jeff Fryer, who made five straight three-point shots Tuesday night against Oregon State and is averaging 23.7 points. Guard Terrell Lowery is averaging 16.3 points off the bench.

And all this means it will probably come down to which team’s press is more effective, or which wears the other down first.

“It will be a game of who’s conditioned the most,” Kimble said. “And we don’t think there’s a basketball team in the world better conditioned than Loyola Marymount.”