St. Mary’s Bursts Loyola’s Bubble

Flying high from a first-round upset, Loyola Marymount Coach John Olive envisioned more success for his team in the West Coast Conference tournament after running the Lions through a light workout Sunday.

“I thought we were really ready to go,” Olive said. “I didn’t think of us losing.”

So much for premonitions. Any momentum Loyola carried into Sunday night’s semifinal against St. Mary’s quickly vanished in a storm of missed shots. The Gaels, playing at the top of their game, didn’t hesitate to take advantage and cruised to an 80-62 victory before 2,275 at Gersten Pavilion.

St. Mary’s (22-7), the WCC co-champion, will play San Francisco in the championship game tonight at 9 to decide the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

After beating top-seeded Santa Clara, 70-61, on Saturday, last-place Loyola didn’t have to search for answers to Sunday’s collapse. They were right in the stat sheet.

The Lions (7-21) established all-time tournament lows by making only 18 of 70 shots (25.7%), including two of 23 (8.7%) from three-point range. It was their worst shooting performance of the season.

Loyola’s embarrassment carried over to its best player, Jim Williamson. The senior point guard was given a standing ovation when he left in the last minute of his final college game, but it came after he made just only of 18 shots, including one of nine three-point shots.

“It wasn’t quite the game I wanted to play,” said Williamson, who led all scorers with 16 points, nine on free throws. “It was disappointing.”

St. Mary’s, in winning its eighth consecutive game, again benefited from a combination of inside strength and perimeter shooting. The Gaels made eight of 19 three-point shots and controlled the middle behind 7-foot-3, 345-pound sophomore Brad Millard.

St. Mary’s capitalized on the Lions’ six-for-31 shooting in the first half to take a 30-19 lead. The Gaels extended the advantage to as many as 24 points in the second half.

San Francisco 64, San Diego 61--Forward Gerald Zimmerman scored 23 points, including seven of the Dons’ last eight points, and made a key defensive play in the final seconds to send San Francisco (16-12) to its first WCC tournament final.

After Zimmerman batted the ball away from San Diego’s Sean Flannery on a three-point attempt, San Diego (17-11) got the ball after it went out of bounds in the backcourt. But after a timeout, Flannery missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.

WCC Tournament Notes

In the women’s WCC tournament final at Loyola, San Francisco (25-5) made six of eight free throws in overtime to defeat Portland, 65-59. Portland (27-2) was two for two from the free-throw line in overtime, but one for seven from the field.