Loyola Reply to Saturday Quiz: Win

Loyola Marymount Coach John Olive said before Saturday night’s game against Portland that “it’s time for us to answer an important question.”

The Lions responded by cruising to a 17-point second-half lead, squandering most of it, then holding on for a 70-62 victory before 1,257 at Gersten Pavilion.

They had beaten Gonzaga, 83-69, on Friday.

By beating the Pilots, Loyola (15-6 overall, 5-3 in the West Coast Conference) played itself into a four-way tie for first place in the WCC, with Santa Clara, San Francisco and Gonzaga.

But the Lions also overcame, albeit barely, an obstacle.

They had not won a conference game on Saturday after playing on Friday since the 1993-94 season, and had lost their last eight such games, their last two this season.

“At some point we’ve been letting down, and some of those games we should have won--everybody’s been talking about it,” said guard Terryl Woolery, who made a key steal down the stretch and finished with 10 points.

“We definitely got a monkey off our backs,” added guard Jim Williamson, who scored a game-high 19 points and made all 10 of his free throws.

The Lions needed Williamson’s last eight free throws, which he calmly made in the final 45.7 seconds, to foil Portland’s comeback bid.

The Pilots (13-7, 4-4), led largely by the shooting of forwards Lemont Daniels (13 points) and Troy Collins (12 points), had cut a 59-42 deficit with 9:17 to play to 62-59 with 2:05 left.

Woolery was fouled with 1:57 remaining, but missed the first of a one-and-one free throw situation. The ball was rebounded by the Pilots’ Dionn Holton, but Woolery stole it to buy his team some time.

Portland, unable to get any clean shots off, began fouling Williamson, who put the game away.