Wednesday’s tilt between the Waves and Lions, an 81-65 Waves victory, was the latest installment in a rivalry is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The Waves hold a 72-58 edge in the long-standing intracity series.
In the “glory years” of the rivalry, top collegiate talent populated both rosters, when Paul Westhead’s Lions featured the likes of Gathers and Bo Kimble, and Tom Asbury’s Waves sported Doug Christie and Dana Jones. The Waves were usually considered to be the more talented squad, but Westhead’s maniacal up-and-down style was always the great equalizer.
The most memorable matchup between the two teams, of course, occurred in the 1990 West Coast conference tournament. In a semifinal game played at Gersten Pavillion, Gathers collapsed at midcourt and died of heart complications.
The game and tournament were cancelled in the wake of the tragedy, and the Lions – controversially declared WCC as regular-season champions – went on to perhaps the most emotionally charged trip through the NCAA tournament in history.
Dedicating his season to his fallen best friend, Kimble went on to lead LMU to the Elite Eight before bowing to Larry Johnson and the mighty Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV. Kimble’s swish of a left-handed free-throw in Gathers’ honor in the first round remains one of sports’ most enduring images.
Last February, fittingly in a home game against the Waves, Gathers’ and Kimble’s numbers were raised to the rafters in a touching halftime ceremony.
For much of the 90’s, the rivalry lost a little of its luster. One of the two teams finished in the WCC cellar most of those years, and the games lacked in significance, if never in passion. In fact, Wednesday’s game marked the first since 91-92 in which both teams sat at .500 or better in conference.
But Loyola killed both those birds with one stone this past off-season. After the most dismal season in school history in 1999-2000 (the Lions failed to beat a Division I team), Charles Bradley was fired and replaced with Steve Aggers, a former Pepperdine assistant under Asbury.
Aggers has injected new life into the Loyola program and the rivalry with Pepperdine. The Lions have long since surpassed last season’s win total and began the WCC season with a major upset of conference co-favorite San Diego.