Lowery Scores 28 to Lead Loyola Over San Diego

Although Loyola Marymount was mired in last place in the West Coast Conference a little more than a week ago, guard Terrell Lowery predicted a turnaround.

“The sky’s the limit for this team,” Lowery said. “I think we can come back and have a winning streak of 10, 11 games.”

Loyola has a ways to go to fulfill Lowery’s prophecy, but the Lions continued their recent rise in the WCC Friday night with a 95-80 victory over the University of San Diego before 2,251 at Gersten Pavilion.

Lowery scored a game-high 28 points to lead Loyola, 11-9 overall and 4-4 in the WCC, to its third consecutive victory, the team’s longest winning streak of the season. The Lions moved half a game ahead of San Diego (11-9, 3-4) for fourth place.

“I feel that we’re settling down and playing much smarter,” Lowery said. “We’re doing the little intangibles to make the team much better. . . . We’re on the right path.”

Lowery, who made 11 of 19 shots, moved past Bo Kimble into third place on the Loyola career scoring list and fifth place on the WCC list with 2,011 points. The late Hank Gathers tops both lists with 2,490 points.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen, that I would score this many points,” Lowery said. “(Kimble) is a personal friend of mine. We played together and went through so much together.”

Loyola broke open a close game with a 22-4 spurt midway through the second half, turning a 51-49 deficit into a 71-55 lead with 9:06 to play. Forward Rahim Harris, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, had eight points during the surge.

San Diego took advantage of Loyola’s 40% shooting in the first half to take a 39-37 lead.

Forwards Gylan Dottin and Kelvin Woods led San Diego with 17 and 16 points, respectively. Dottin had a game-high 13 rebounds.

Loyola plays host to Santa Clara at 7:30 tonight.