Loyola Struggles to Beat Westmont

Jay Hillock, Loyola Marymount’s basketball coach, wasn’t in the mood to celebrate his 43rd birthday Friday night.

Although the Lions scored a 72-64 nonconference victory over Westmont at Gersten Pavilion, Hillock was unhappy that his team’s 13-point second-half lead shrank to three in the final minutes against an NAIA Division I school.

“We got outplayed,” Hillock said. “That’s about a seventh-place performance in our league (the West Coast Conference).”

Loyola (4-3) played without guard Terrell Lowery, who averages a team-leading leading 25.2 points, because of a sprained right ankle suffered in practice. But Hillock said Lowery’s absence was no excuse for the Lions’ poor play down the stretch.

“I think our guys should be able to compensate for that,” he said. “This team has had periods of lulls. I don’t know how to explain them.”

Guard Chris Brown keyed Westmont’s late rally by scoring 10 of his team’s last 12 points. The former standout at Crossroads High in Santa Monica pulled the Warriors within 67-64 with 1:22 left on his third three-point shot of the game.

After a free throw by guard Craig Holt gave Loyola a 68-64 lead with 1:15 left, Westmont (5-4) missed its last two shots, both of which were rebounded by Lion forward Brian McCloskey.

Two free throws by center Christian Scott and a dunk by McCloskey, who had team-high totals of 13 points and six rebounds, in the last 23 seconds accounted for Loyola’s final margin.

Point guard Tony Walker added 12 points and seven assists for the Lions and Scott had 10 points.

Westmont’s Brown led all scorers with 19 points and backcourt mate Deron Oates had 17. Westmont center Greg Zuanich had a game-high 17 rebounds as the Warriors outrebounded Loyola, 39-30.

“We tried to get an interior game going, but it didn’t look like we accomplished that tonight,” Hillock said. “They played harder than we did.”

Guard Ross Richardson came off the bench in the first half to give Loyola a lift for a second consecutive game.

With the Lions trailing, 20-19, Richardson made two three-point shots to help open a 27-20 Loyola lead with 8:43 left in the first half. It gave Richardson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, four consecutive three-point shots over the last two games. The streak ended when Richardson missed his first three-point attempt of the second half.

The Lions extended their lead to 43-30 in the final minute of the first half on a follow shot by forward Chris Knight and an outside jumper by Holt.

No Loyola player scored in double figures in the first half. Scott led the way with eight points.