Loyola Starts Off Quickly and Overruns Pacific, 96-80

It took five games, but Loyola Marymount finally played a good first half and found some support for high-scoring guard Terrell Lowery Tuesday night.

The Lions parlayed the two factors into a 96-80 nonconference victory over Pacific at Gersten Pavilion in what Coach Jay Hillock called Loyola’s best game so far this season.

“We tried to jump-start them tonight,” said Hillock, whose team had a 45-31 lead at halftime. “Our turnovers were down, and that means we’re getting better shots.”

The Lions (3-2), who had trailed at halftime in three of their first four games and had not shot better than 42% in the first half, made 21 of 42 field-goal attempts (50%) in the first half despite a two-for-nine start by Lowery.

Lowery still finished with 18 points to share team-high scoring honors, but it was far below his 29.5 average. Lowery finished the game making only four of 14 field goals, and he had eight turnovers.

“If you told me Lowery would only get that many points, I would tell you we’d have a pretty good chance to win,” said Pacific Coach Bob Thomason, whose team dropped to 2-2. “But it was just a struggle the whole game for us. I thought they completely dominated the game from beginning to end.”

Among the Loyola players who helped pick up the slack for Lowery were 6-foot-8 center Christian Scott, who had a career-high 18 points and eight rebounds; forward Brian McCloskey, who had 16 points and nine rebounds, and reserve guard Craig Holt, who had 13 points.

“That’s pretty encouraging,” Hillock said. “The other kids stepped up.”

Pacific guard Dell Demps led all scorers with 28 points.