Gathers, Pepperdine’s Lewis Had Special Bond : College basketball: Besides being teammates as freshmen at USC, each faced difficulties of being a single parent.

The game had already begun when Tom Lewis rounded a corner in Gersten Pavilion Sunday, holding 4-year-old daughter Holly by the hand.

That’s why Lewis, whose own Pepperdine basketball team was not scheduled to play in a West Coast Conference tournament game for hours, was in a hurry. He wanted to watch Loyola Marymount’s semifinal game against the University of Portland.

He wanted to see two of his buddies, Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, play for the Lions.

He never got the chance.

As Lewis walked in, he saw Gathers, 23, collapse, then attempt to get up before going down again. He watched as doctors and paramedics attended to his stricken friend and former teammate, who was taken to Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital and then pronounced dead.

“My daughter was crying, saying to me, ‘Daddy, is he OK?’ ” Lewis said. “I looked at her and thought, ‘What if that was me?’ ”

Lewis and Gathers had a special camaraderie, not only because they had been freshman teammates at USC five years ago, but because they shared the difficulties of single fatherhood.

Gathers has a 5-year-old son living in Philadelphia.

“He kept it real private, but his son meant a lot to him,” Lewis said. “He was looking forward to the day when he entered the NBA so he could take care of his son. It’s horrible. His son is never going to see Hank again.”

Lewis said Gathers’ rough North Philadelphia neighborhood taught him to strive for a better life, not only for himself but for his family. Lewis said Gathers wanted to move his mother out of the Rowland Rosen housing project once he started a professional career.

Lewis, who attended Santa Ana Mater Dei High School, lived in Mission Viejo and Garden Grove, both comfortable communities. He recalled the first time Gathers took him home when USC traveled to Philadelphia to play the University of Pennsylvania.

The rundown neighborhood left an indelible mark on Lewis.

“People don’t realize how far Hank came,” Lewis said. “They were lucky to have enough food. If they had a meal a day, it was considered great. People just don’t understand how hard Hank worked to get where he was. He motivated me when I came to practice like no one else.”

Now, Lewis said, Gathers’ memory reminds him of life’s fleeting moments. He broke down during a lecture Monday when a Pepperdine professor said something that triggered that memory. He left the class, left the Pepperdine campus in Malibu and drove to Orange County. He said he wanted to be away from the distractions to recover.

“I just wish I could talk to Hank once more,” he said.