Loyola Is Healthy for Niagara

“The Bank” is open for business and, for a change, Loyola Marymount basketball Coach Paul Westhead will have a full deck to work with when the Lions play host to Niagara on Saturday, then head east for a three-game road trip in the winter wonderlands of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Lions’ big man, Hank (the Bank) Gathers, will return to the lineup after sitting out two weeks for medical tests after he fainted in a game Dec. 9.

Gathers, averaging 28.5 points and 13.3 rebounds, returned to two-a-day practices this week.

Also on the mend is shooting guard Jeff Fryer, still recovering from a broken bone in his shooting hand that kept him out of four of the Lions’ eight games and is still bothersome. He’s still managing to average 25 points.

Freshman forward Chris Scott has rebounded nicely from a broken thumb that kept him sidelined for a month and has been playing some scrappy minutes off the bench.

And, of course, there’s junior daredevil Tom Peabody, who brings new meaning to scrappy . His floor-burned knees, with blood trailing down both shins, earned him camera time in Saturday’s televised game against Oklahoma. But it’s a condition Loyola followers--and overworked trainers--have come to consider routine.

Loyola can finally toast its health for the holidays. For the first time this season Westhead’s entire roster will be able to play.

Through all the mayhem the Lions have managed to forge a 6-2 start--the only losses to Top 10 Nevada Las Vegas and Oklahoma--and swing man Bo Kimble has risen to All-American heights. The senior, who suffered through two injury-plagued seasons prior to this one, has scored 150 points in the last three games (not counting a 57-point exhibition game explosion against Athletes in Action) and leads the nation with a 35.9 average.

Operating to a great extent inside in Gathers’ absence, Kimble has raised his shooting accuracy to 54%, has been in double figures in rebounding for the last three games and is hitting 92% from the foul line.

Niagara, which played a consolation game in the Holiday Bowl Tournament in San Diego on Thursday night, brings a 1-9 record into Gersten Pavilion at 7:30 p.m.. First-year Purple Eagles Coach Jack Armstrong is the youngest head coach in Division I at 26. And yes, he’s heard all the jokes about the All-American Boy. He’d settle for a few All-Americans. None will be wearing purple Saturday, though his team features a pair of good forwards, 6-foot-6 senior Patrick Jones, averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds, and 6-5 freshman Dwayne Daniel (10.7, 3.1).

The Eagles, who play a deliberate pace, may be in for a shock in Gersten Pavilion. They have yet to give up more than 85 points this season. Loyola is averaging 123.3 at home and 120.1 overall.

On New Year’s Day the Lions will forgo the football bowl orgy to fly to Cincinnati to start their most ambitious road trip of the season. Loyola will face once-beaten Xavier on Tuesday, then continues on to Philadelphia for games at St. Joseph’s on Jan. 4 and a televised game against unbeaten and 20th-ranked LaSalle on Jan. 6.