Two seasons years, Loyola Marymount upset Gonzaga to end the Bulldogs’ mammoth 75-game homecourt winning streak.
That stunning victory marks the only time in the past 29 meetings that the Lions defeated the Zags. Loyola Marymount takes another swipe at an upset when it faces No. 19 Gonzaga in a West Coast Conference encounter on Saturday night in Los Angeles.
The Lions (9-6, 1-2 WCC) sense another opportunity in the upcoming battle at the on-campus facility dubbed “Hank’s House.”
“Saturday is the biggest game of the season because it’s the next game,” Loyola Marymount coach Stan Johnson said after his team trounced visiting Oregon State 82-61 on Thursday. “Gonzaga is who they are. We don’t need to get into all that. They’re a good team. For us, we have to keep getting better.”
While the Bulldogs have regularly tormented the Lions with 32 wins in the last 34 meetings, that 2023 victory was one of the top upsets of the entire season and Loyola Marymount’s first in Spokane since 1991.
That 1991 victory was part of a stretch in which the Lions beat Gonzaga 10 straight times. Eight of the wins were during the electric high-scoring Hank Gathers/Bo Kimble era with Loyola Marymount racking up point totals such as 147, 144 and 121.
The 121-84 victory on March 3, 1990, came in the quarterfinals of the WCC tournament on the Loyola Marymount campus. The next night, Gathers delivered a rousing dunk against Portland and collapsed near midcourt while running back up the floor and died hours later at a hospital.
The Bulldogs (11-4, 2-0) are seeking their 13th straight win over the Lions in Los Angeles.
Gonzaga was sharp on Thursday in an 81-50 home victory over Portland.
It was a balanced effort in which Nolan Hickman topped the Zags with 13 points. Dusty Stromer pitched in a season-best 12 points and Michael Ajayi collected a season-high 15 rebounds.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few felt the Bulldogs’ first-half defense was the key. His club held the Pilots without a point for more than 7 1/2 minutes during a 20-0 burst.
“I thought it was great,” Few said. “Portland does some different actions that you don’t often see and I thought we were alert and competitive. We were physical and we had multiple guys in there on the glass, which is what we talked about with the quick turnaround.”
Ajayi was a pleasant surprise on the boards in his 18-minute stint. He had lost his starting gig due to a poor performance against Pepperdine, his former school.
He shot 1-for-7 against Portland and is averaging just 2.2 points on 3-of-21 shooting over the past five games, so he tried to grab every rebound he could while falling two shy of his career best.
“Coach (Few) pulled me aside and was like, ‘We need you, we love you and we need you to slow down,'” Ajayi said. “Not starting is not that big of a deal. My goal is to impact winning, so if that’s the case, Coach Few did a good job reminding me of who I am, and starting now I’m going to be more aggressive on the court and grab more rebounds.”
In Loyola Marymount’s win over Oregon State, Jevon Porter was a force with 22 points and a season-high 13 rebounds. He leads the Lions in scoring (13.9 points per game) and rebounding (8.0).
“Our league is fantastic,” Johnson said. “It’s as good as it’s ever been since I’ve been here. We have some high-level teams, some high-level coaches, and anytime you get a win, especially against a team like that, is awesome.”
–Field Level Media
