COLLEGES : Lowery Is Climbing Loyola Scoring Ladder

Bouncing around the West Coast Conference.

With 32 points Monday at Santa Barbara and 26 Thursday at Gonzaga, Loyola junior Terrell Lowery was within a basket of moving into seventh place in school season scoring annals with 658 points.

On Thursday he shot past Jeff Fryer’s 1989-90 total of 636 and Ed Bento’s 1961-62 total of 648, and he needs two points to replace Jim Haderlein in the seventh spot. Up next: Keith Smith’s 678, scored in 1984-85.

Lowery is bidding to join Fryer (710 in 1988-89), Hank Gathers (1,015-754-721 in the three previous seasons) and Bo Kimble (1,131 in 1989-90) as the only Lions to score more than 700 points in a season.

Loyola’s victory at Santa Barbara was the Lions’ first win in six games on ESPN this season. The not-ready-for-prime-time Lions had lost to Santa Clara in November, Oklahoma, Louisiana State and Georgia Tech in December and La Salle in January.

Pepperdine junior Doug Christie, the West Coast Conference’s player of the month for January, got off to a good start in February, recording the league’s first triple double last weekend. He had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a double-overtime victory over St. Mary’s in Malibu. Loyola’s Terrell Lowery missed a triple double by a rebound against Georgia Tech.

The most consistent team in the conference? How about the second-place University of San Diego, which is 14-0 when shooting 50% or better and 0-7 otherwise. Last weekend the Toreros shot 56% in a victory over Portland and 39% in losing to Gonzaga.

Santa Clara, which went into the weekend 1 1/2 games out of first place, may have recorded one of the season’s costliest victories last weekend when forward Rhea Taylor was injured in the Broncos’ victory over Gonzaga.

Taylor, who ranks third in the WCC in scoring and eighth in rebounding, suffered a sprained ligament in his left ankle. X-rays were negative but he probably won’t be at full effectiveness when the Broncos play Loyola and Pepperdine in two weeks.

The Broncos got a break from the schedule-maker, playing only one game this week. But it was at San Diego, one of the teams the Broncos are trying to catch.

Nobody is comparing Ron Reis to Hank Gathers, who led the nation in scoring and rebounding two seasons ago, but the 7-foot Santa Clara center is the only WCC player averaging double figures in scoring and rebounding this season. Reis’ double-double finds him ninth in scoring at 14.8 per game and first in rebounding at 11.2. He also leads the league in field goal percentage at .614.

Signing Up: Loyola Marymount basketball Coach Jay Hillock, looking to recruit a point guard for next season, may have gotten his man this week when the school received an unwritten commitment from Cobi McElroy of Western High in Las Vegas.

According to Western Coach Joe Stein, the 6-foot-2 McElroy is averaging 16.5 points and eight assists for Western, which is 23-2 and averaging more than 100 points a game.

“He gets the ball up and down the court, he’s a good three-point shooter and he’s got super quickness,” Stein said. “He’s going to fit well into that system. He’s made for that.”

Stein added that McElroy is a good student, with a 3.5 grade-point average and has passed his college entrance exams. Stein said McElroy is a late bloomer who was recruited by Loyola and Boston College. He has had such a good senior season that “now a lot of other schools are coming out of the woodwork. But Cobi really wanted to go to Loyola and is committed to them.”

Loyola coaches can’t comment until the April 10 signing day.

Stat of the Week: The Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball team held an opponent under 50 points for the fourth time this season in last week’s 53-48 victory over Chapman. That effort lowered the Toros’ defensive average to 67.1 per game, which moved them back into the Division II top 20.

The Toros ranked as high as seventh earlier in the season. The Toros are also leading the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. in defensive average, allowing 64.3 points in CCAA games.

College Notes

Loyola Marymount middle blocker Andy Zimmerman was named Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. player of the week after leading the Lions to a five-- game upset of UC Santa Barbara in Goleta. The sophomore recorded 16 kills, six digs and four blocks and a .407 hitting percentage. . . . Former Harbor College baseball standout Patrick Ahearne made an impressive debut for Pepperdine, pitching eight scoreless innings at Arizona, giving up five hits. . . . Former El Camino College forward Kelvin Harris leads Cal State Los Angeles in scoring. He took a 12.4-point average into Friday’s game at Dominguez Hills. . . . Santa Clara basketball Coach Carroll Williams missed a game last weekend because of a viral infection, only the second time in his 21-year tenure he has missed a game. The last game he missed, also because of illness, was in the 1974-75 season. Williams coached 465 consecutive games in-between.