Loyola’s Hotshots Clinch Tie for Title

Loyola Marymount’s senior trio of Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble and Jeff Fryer kissed off Pepperdine with a Valentine’s Day bouquet of 105 points as Loyola clinched at least a tie for the West Coast Conference title Wednesday night with a 131-116 victory.

Before a sellout crowd of 4,156 at Gersten Pavilion, Fryer scored a season-high 40 points and put on an early shooting exhibition that led Loyola to a 37-14 lead seven minutes into play. Pepperdine never got closer than 13 points as Kimble scored 36 and Gathers finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds.

Loyola improved to 20-4 overall--its third consecutive 20-victory season--and 11-0 in WCC play.

Pepperdine, despite a career-high 35 points from Dexter Howard, fell to 13-11 and 7-4.

Loyola would clinch the WCC title outright if San Francisco beats San Diego tonight in SanDiego.

Loyola was behind only once, 8-6 in the early minutes, but ran off streaks of 14-0 and 13-0 as Fryer hit five three-point baskets plus a three-point play in the first 6:40 of play.

“We had to kind of fight off flattening out and it was only 10 minutes into the game,” Loyola Coach Paul Westhead said.

Fryer hit nine of 15 three-point attempts on the night and 13 of 21 shots overall.

Craig Davis added 25 points for the Waves, most after halftime, and hit seven three-pointers to help the Waves stay in the game.

“Fryer was very very hot early,” Westhead said. “He got us off to a great start. He was focused in on the rim and knew it. Gathers and Kimble are the more renowned scorers. If Fryer breaks the ice early, it makes us very tough.”

The Lions forced 24 Pepperdine turnovers, 14 in the first half.

“Their press didn’t surprise us. We’ve been looking at it for four years,” Wave Coach Tom Asbury said. “We just didn’t beat it. We lost our poise. It’s hard to simulate in practice when you only have two days to prepare.”

The teams play again Saturday in Malibu.

After running off to its early lead, Loyola coasted to a 67-46 halftime advantage.

The Lions took their biggest lead at 90-66 before Pepperdine began to cut into the lead, whittling it to 13 several times.

But Fryer kept answering with three-pointers and the Lions rebuilt the lead to 22 points in the closing minutes before clearing the bench.

Westhead said the fact his team didn’t go on to bury the Waves “was more a credit to Pepperdine not just folding and playing dead. Pepperdine stayed right in the hunt despite being down 20.”

Tom Lewis, who was benched for long periods in the second half, had 19 points for the Waves, and Doug Christie added 18. Geoff Lear had 12 points and led all rebounders with 14.

The Waves outshot Loyola, 50.6% to 48.9%. But it wasn’t enough to offset the 14 three-pointers by Fryer and Kimble.