WCC Basketball Fans

Gonzaga 79, Loyola Marymount 59

It’s hard enough as it is to walk into the McCarthey Athletic Center, otherwise known as the Kennel, and beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs. It’s a million times harder to pull off such an accomplishment when you’re absolutely fried, both physically and mentally. That’s why a conference game turned into a non-event and kept the backyard bigshot in control of its environment.
The Loyola Marymount Lions knew at the beginning of this past week that they were going to have a hard time on their northward trek within the West Coast Conference. By the time tip-off arrived on Saturday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, the squad from Los Angeles knew it was in for a particularly arduous session of hoops.

Yes, the contours of this contest were never about to be favorable for LMU and head coach Bill Bayno, who endured a brief and unsuccessful stint as the bench boss at UNLV before winding his way to L.A. and a less imposing conference. However, when the officials had to toss up the jump ball in Spokane, Bayno’s boys – despite putting on a brave face and outwardly hoping for the best – had to realize, deep down, that they were cooked. The severity of LMU’s situation became particularly dire before the proceedings even started.

The reality of Gonzaga’s easy 20-point triumph on Saturday is simple. Coach Mark Few’s GU crew remained unbeaten in the WCC because it faced one very tuckered out opponent. Both teams played on Thursday night in the conference, but Gonzaga stayed at home and polished off Pepperdine in a not-too-grueling 92-75 affair. The Zags didn’t expend a whole lot of defensive energy and were able to run the visiting Waves out of the gym. The Bulldogs then stayed put and rested during Friday and early Saturday. In the meantime, their weekend foe underwent a distinctly different series of events.

Loyola Marymount didn’t just play a Thursday game; the Lions played a late Thursday game that, due to ESPN television, tipped off after 8 p.m. Pacific time in Portland against the Pilots. LMU then proceeded to battle through two overtime periods before falling 79-78. The Lions didn’t leave the arena until after midnight, and then they had to travel to Eastern Washington for this go-round with Gonzaga. The mental letdown of a double-OT loss stung the Lions’ roster, but on top of that, LMU had to find a way to physically regroup against the league’s defending regular season champions… on the road… with a relatively short turnaround.
It simply wasn’t going to work.

The long and short of this lopsided confrontation was that Loyola lacked legs. The Lions were tired from the word go, and when a basketball team is tired, it’s simply not going to push through jumpers and get the proper elevation it needs on each and every shot. Sure enough, LMU hit just 27 percent of its shots (15 of 55). Even though the visitors outrebounded Gonzaga 36 to 33 and gave the old college try, they just couldn’t knock down shots with any degree of regularity. Precisely when this game entered the home stretch, LMU’s tank ran on empty. The Lions hit just two field goal attempts in the final 8:56, and that’s why the Zags zoomed away with a comfortable triumph.

The next time Loyola Marymount tackles the Portland-Gonzaga road swing in the WCC, the California kids will want to schedule a 5 p.m. game on Thursday, not Saturday. They’ll also want to avoid double overtime if they want to have a reasonable chance of rebounding for the back end of a two-game trip.

Matt Zemek