Hillock Is Hopeful That WCC Tournament Rematch Against San Francisco Is Not a Rerun

When Jay Hillock says he fears the University of San Francisco basketball team, it isn’t a case of a coach giving lip service to an opponent.

For Hillock, the second-year Loyola Marymount coach, playing USF has been something of a chamber of horrors.

Last season, the seventh-seeded Dons ended a seven-game Loyola winning streak in the West Coast Conference tournament by stunning the second-seeded Lions in the first round, 101-93.

Loyola (15-12) hopes to avoid a repeat of that disappointment when it again opens the WCC tournament against USF (12-15) at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the University of Portland. The Lions are seeded second; USF is sixth.

“We’d like to play (top-seeded) Pepperdine on the last night, but we’re not looking past USF,” Hillock said. “It’s going to be a 40-minute war.”

The teams played a curious two-game series in the conference this season, with each winning on the other’s home court. USF shot a season-high 62.1% to win the first game, 94-89, and Loyola came back the following week to win in San Francisco, 92-79.

Both teams have played well recently after shaky starts in the WCC.

After an encouraging nonconference season that included victories over California and DePaul, USF stumbled out of the blocks in the WCC, losing its first three games by a total of six points. Injuries to key players further demoralized the Dons, who were 1-9 in conference play before winning three of their last four games, including an 81-69 victory Saturday night on the road against second-place Santa Clara.

“It was really a mental thing more than anything else,” USF Coach Jim Brovelli said of his team’s early problems. “We were very fragile. We lost some key starters and that bothered us mentally.

“But you have to credit this basketball team. We were never blown out, even though we had a lot of adversity.”

Center Darryl Johnson, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound senior, has led USF’s late-season surge. Johnson, who missed two games after suffering a concussion in January, was named WCC player of the month for February, averaging 19.4 points and 13.9 rebounds and shooting 55% from the field. He leads the WCC in rebounding with an 11.1 average.

Senior forward Tim Owens, who scored 26 points in USF’s victory at Loyola, leads four Don players in double figures with a 16.6 average.

Loyola started conference play 1-4, but won seven of its last nine WCC games. The Lions swept Gonzaga and Portland at home last weekend.

“We’re on what I would call a mini-roll,” Hillock said. “I think we played well in the last half of our league. We can play with anybody in our league.”

Senior point guard Tony Walker appears to have fully recovered from a sprained wrist he suffered Jan. 11 against Pepperdine. He had one of his best games Saturday night in a 93-86 victory over Portland, finishing with 20 points on eight-for-eight shooting. He also had 10 assists and is second in the WCC in assists with a 7.7 average. USF point guard Orlando Smart is the leader with an 8.3 average.

Walker’s emergence as a scoring threat could take some of the pressure off Loyola’s other senior guard, Terrell Lowery, the WCC’s leading scorer with a 26.4 average.

Brovelli, however, is most concerned with Loyola’s press. The Lions lead the WCC in turnover ratio (+3) and forced Gonzaga and Portland into a total of 43 turnovers last weekend.

“We have to take care of the basketball,” Brovelli said. “(Loyola) pressures the ball very well.”

Brovelli is also concerned about slowing Loyola’s offensive rebounding. Brian McCloskey (6.2) and Chris Knight (5.9) lead the Lions in rebounding.