Loyola Is Flat, Loses to Gauchos

As Loyola Marymount fell behind by 19 points in the first half Wednesday night against UC Santa Barbara, the most vocal of a group of students seated near courtside reacted predictably.

“Over-rated, over-rated,” they chided the struggling Lions.

Loyola responded with a furious rally, twice cutting its deficit to one point midway through the second half before reverting to early form and losing, 91-72, before 2,136 at the Thunderdome.

“We just didn’t play (well) for long stretches,” Loyola Coach John Olive said. “I have no explanation why in the first 17 minutes we didn’t play the style of basketball we’ve become accustomed to--playing hard and playing aggressive, defending and rebounding. It just wasn’t there.”

Loyola, which made a season-low 34.3% of its shots in last Friday night’s 75-60 loss to Wisconsin, made only three of its first 19 shots against the Gauchos and had 13 turnovers in falling behind, 31-12.

Reserve guard Cobi McElroy led the comeback, making six of nine three-point shots and scoring a career-high 20 points in 22 minutes.

At one point in the second half, McElroy scored 15 consecutive points for the Lions, all on three-point baskets, the last cutting Santa Barbara’s lead to 54-53 with 9:09 to play.

“Finally, we caught a little fire but we didn’t really do it consistently on the defensive end,” Olive said. “We just happened to get hot offensively, which got us back in the game.”

A layup by Mike O’Quinn, who also scored 20 points, cut Loyola’s deficit to 56-55 with 8:29 left, but Lelan McDougal made a three-point shot to start a 13-3 run that put Santa Barbara (5-2) back in control.

“I thought we ran out of gas, and that’s what happens so often after you spend so much energy getting back into the game,” Olive said. “There’s no question we didn’t have enough energy to close it out the way we should have, and that’s because of the first 17 minutes of the game.”

Loyola (6-3) made 51.5% of its shots in the second half after making only 30.8% in the first half, but Santa Barbara, which got 17 points from Tecon Madden and 16 from McDougal, shot 64.7%.

Loyola’s Jim Williamson, averaging 13.5 points after eight games, missed all nine of his shots and failed to score.