Pepperdine to Try to Slow Loyola : Running Question: How to Keep Up with Lions, Too?

To run or not to run with Loyola Marymount is the question that Pepperdine will have to consider when it plays host to the Lions in a West Coast Athletic Conference basketball game at 8:15 tonight at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury sounds as if he wants his team to do both--and he does.

“We’ll try to slow it down some and keep up with them at the same time,” Asbury said.

Loyola and Pepperdine are coming off road sweeps of Portland and Gonzaga. They are tied for first in the WCAC with St. Mary’s at 4-0. But the similarities probably end there.

The Waves (12-7 overall) can be a run-and-shoot team, but not a run-run-run-and-shoot team such as the Lions (10-6), who lead the nation in scoring with a 112.4 points-per-game average. “We can’t run with them,” Asbury said. “Nobody can run with them except for Oklahoma.

“They’re going to up-tempo everybody, run you more than you normally do. How well you do will be contingent upon how you play. Their full-court, extended press makes it hard for you to play a set, half-court offense.”

Loyola’s junior center, Hank Gathers, leads the country in points (33.6) and rebounds (14.5).

Pepperdine’s top scorers are junior forwards Dexter Howard and Tom Lewis, who are averaging 17.4 and 15.7, respectively. Pepperdine’s leading rebounders are senior center Casey Crawford (7.8) and Howard (7.6).

The Lion guards, junior Jeff Fryer and senior Enoch Simmons, have combined for 93 3-point shots, compared to 74 for Pepperdine’s top two, junior guards Craig Davis and Shann Ferch.

Fryer, who leads the WCAC in 3-pointers with 59, was hot and cold last week. Against Gonzaga, he scored a game-high 37 points, including 5 of 15 3-pointers. Against Portland, he finished with 8 points, making 2 of 23 shots, including 1 of 10 from long range.

Ferch made 5 of 6 3-pointers against Portland, and Davis scored a season-high 26 points against Gonzaga, including 6 of 7 3-point shots.

Asbury said of Gathers, Fryer and Simmons: “We’re not going to shut them out, but I hope we play reasonably effective defense on one or two of those guys.

“It is also important that we take care of the basketball, rebound effectively at both ends of the floor and demonstrate patience on offense. The final score figures to be high, but I am willing to bet that the team that plays the better defense is most likely to win.

“If we have to get our guys up for these 2 games (they will play again at 5 p.m. Sunday at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion), we’d better check their pulse rates and see if they’re alive.”

Tonight’s game was switched from 7:30 to 8:15 p.m. because it is being televised by Prime Ticket.