Loyola’s Season Is Slipping Away

Loyola Marymount’s once-promising season took yet another turn for the worse Saturday night when the Lions squandered an eight-point lead in the second half of an 83-78 loss to San Diego before 1,937 at Gersten Pavilion.

The Lions, 9-7 overall and 1-3 in the West Coast Conference, matched the best start in school history by winning six of their first seven games, but they’ve since lost six of nine, including their last three.

“When we’ve played well, we’ve defended and rebounded,” said Loyola Coach John Olive. “And we did not defend or rebound tonight. The effort seemed pretty good, but we didn’t get the job done.”

San Diego (7-8, 3-2) outrebounded the Lions, 37-28, and made a season-high 59.3% of its shots after making only 35.2% on Friday in a 61-51 loss at Pepperdine.

“As bad as we were against Pepperdine, we were as good tonight against Loyola,” said San Diego Coach Brad Holland. “We’re not the most talented team. We have to be on all cylinders, and we were tonight.”

Still, despite making 59.1% of their shots in the first half, the Toreros trailed at halftime, 43-37, as Loyola made 57.1%.

Loyola increased its advantage to 47-39 before San Diego rallied behind guard Doug Harris, who scored 21 points, and center Brian Bruso, who had 15 points and nine rebounds in only 23 minutes.

Loyola couldn’t keep pace, making only 38.2% of its shots in the second half, and San Diego took the lead for good on a tip-in by Harris that put the Toreros in front, 67-65, with 6:41 to play.

Robin Kirksey led Loyola with 20 points. Ime Oduok had 16 points and nine rebounds and Wyking Jones had 13 points and eight rebounds.