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WCC TOURNAMENT : Trouble? Not for Loyola

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Gonzaga Coach Dan Fitzgerald said his team had to play a near-perfect game Saturday and hope Loyola Marymount had trouble in order to pull off an upset in the opening round of the West Coast Conference tournament.

Instead, Fitzgerald said, “the opposite occurred.”

The top-seeded Lions took a 59-33 halftime lead and never looked back in a 121-84 victory. They will play Portland today at 5 p.m.

While Gonzaga lost its fourth consecutive tournament opener, the Lions set WCC tournament records for points, rebounds (66), field goals (48) and attempts (96). The Lions also forced 25 turnovers--17 by halftime--and the Bulldogs contributed to their demise by shooting 14 for 26 from the free-throw line, where they were four of 15 at one point.

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“Loyola played very well. I was disappointed in our effort,” Fitzgerald said. “The turning point might have been at breakfast.”

Loyola Coach Paul Westhead was pleased with the results even though the Lions didn’t shoot especially well. They were five for 20 on three-point shots, but they had 27 offensive rebounds.

Hank Gathers led a balanced attack with 28 points and 11 rebounds, and Jeff Fryer scored 25 and Bo Kimble added 21 points and 11 rebounds. Per Stumer led all rebounders with 12.

Loyola improved to 23-5 and advanced to today’s semifinals, which begin at 5 p.m.

Westhead, whose team had trouble getting up for some recent conference games, said: “I thought our energy last weekend was on the upswing. I told the guys at halftime today that their energy was up and we were OK. This is the postseason. We’re gonna play all out (today) and hope we have enough energy left to play Monday. Full throttle.”

Before 3,875 at Gersten Pavilion, Loyola grabbed a quick 27-11 lead with Fryer scoring nine points. The Lions hit a brief lull and Gonzaga pulled to 29-19, but Loyola scored the next 12 points and had a 41-19 lead with 4:55 to play in the half.

The Lions built the lead to 26 points by halftime and scored the first five points after halftime to put the game away.

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Gonzaga finished the season 8-20. Senior Jim McPhee closed his career with 32 points and set a tournament record with 26 shots. His total boosted him past 2,000 points. Another senior, Mike Winger, with 16, was the only other Bulldog to score in double figures. Gonzaga shot 43% and was outrebounded by 24.

“We try to slow (Loyola) down a little bit, and I think we’ve got one of the better concepts to stop them, but they still go 100 miles an hour.” McPhee said. “We had too many spurts where we didn’t play hard. You don’t play hard against them, forget it. It’s not even funny.”

WCC TOURNAMENT

AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT

FIRST-ROUND RESULTS Loyola Marymount 121, Gonzaga 84 Pepperdine 94, St. Mary’s 83 Portland 65, Santa Clara 62 San Diego 80, USF 74

TODAY’S GAMES Loyola Marymount vs. Portland, 5 p.m. Pepperdine vs. San Diego, 7 p.m.

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