Jan. 14, 2004
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BRIEFLY
The Loyola Marymount University men's basketball will continue a tough stretch in West Coast Conference play as they head to San Diego to take on the well rested Toreros at Jenny Craig Pavilion on Thursday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. The Lions (8-6/0-2) are in the middle of a stretch that features four games in eight days as they take on a San Diego squad (3-12/0-0) who has not played since Jan. 6. The Lions will then complete the WCC road swing with Santa Clara (9-7/1-0) on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. Both games can be heard live on the Lions' Audio Network at KXLU 88.9 FM.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
Due to the major winter storm in the Pacific Northwest that closed the Portland airport more than a week, the Lions' schedule got a little tougher. The Lions game against Portland was moved from Thursday, Jan. 8 to Saturday, Jan. 12. The result of the change is a marathon for the Lions, as they will play four conference games in eight days - Saturday against No. 16 Gonzaga; Monday against Portland; Thursday at San Diego and Saturday (Jan. 17) at Santa Clara. The Lions have already played a four-game in eight days stretch in non-conference play, going 3-1 in that stretch. They defeated SUNY-Binghamton on Nov. 29, CCSU on Nov. 30, Cal Poly on Dec. 3 and then fell to UNLV on Dec. 6 at the end of the stretch.
NEXT WEEK
The Lions will return home for a quick non-conference tilt against Northern Colorado, who is making the transition from NCAA Division II ranks to Division I. The game will be at Gersten Pavilion on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. The Lions will then head back to the "road" when they play rival Pepperdine in WCC play on Saturday, Jan. 24. That game will be at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live on Fox Sports West 2.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Senior Sherman Gay has been making them count in his fourth and final season at LMU. The native of Carson, Calif., enters week of conference play third in the WCC in scoring with 16.7 per game, scoring 18 against the Zags on Saturday and equalling a career-high with 26 against Portland Monday. He has scored more than 20 points five times on the season and led the Lions in scoring in eight of the 14 games this season. Gay also leads the league in shooting, hitting 55 percent from the field, including a career-best 10-for-13 against Portland. Showing the improvement in his all-around game, Gay, a 42 percent career free throw shooter entering this season, is ranked 15th in the WCC with a free throw percentage of 69.1. He is 10th in rebounds with 5.8 per game, second in the conference this year with 1.71 blocks per game and second in offensive rebounds with 2.71.
MAKING THEM COUNT
Thanks to a 78-54 win over Colgate on Jan. 2, the Lions improved to 8-4 on the season in non-conference play, the best start since the 1995-96 season when they entered conference play 9-3. The eight non-conference wins against NCAA Division I opponents is the most heading into conference play since the 1989-90 season when the Lions went to the Elite Eight. LMU will play one more non-conference tilt four games into conference when they face Northern Colorado on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at home.
INJURY UPDATE
The Lions have been without sophomore Brandon Worthy for the entire first half of the season due to a broken right hand suffered in the final exhibition game. He will apply for a medical redshirt and sit out the remainder of the season. Sophomore Wes Wardrop has a strained left foot missed the last four games. His status is day-to-day. Sophomore John Haywood suffered a broken bone in his left hand and will be out at least six to eight weeks.
UNDER 60
In Aggers' first season in 2000-01 the Lions held Loyola of Chicago to 53 points in a 10-point win on Dec. 21, 2000. They equaled that low in the first win of the 2003-04 season against UC Riverside. That first season saw the Lions hold opponents under 60 points five times, equaling the most by an LMU team in the last 30 years. Surprisingly, the other team to do it was coached by Paul Westhead, which came in his first season in 1985-86. With the win over Colgate, the Lions have now held opponents to under 60 points four times 2003-04 (53 - UCR, 54-Colgate, 56 - SUNY, 57 - CCSU). Under Aggers, the Lions are 11-1 in games holding opponents under 60 points.
HEATING UP
Junior Charles Brown and senior Keith Kincade have started have provided some scoring punch for the Lions this season. As the team MVP in 2002-03, Brown has been showing flashes of that season as of late. He had possibly the best game of his career against Cal State Fullerton, scoring a career-best 25 points with eight assists, no turnovers and five steals to push the Lions to the win. He followed that game with 14 points, six assists and just two turnovers in the win over Colgate. The effort earned the junior his second WCC Player of the Week (Jan. 5) honor of his career. Brown is second on the team in scoring (11.7 ppg) while also leading the team in assists (53) and steals (27). He enters the week 17th in the WCC in scoring, 7th in assists and second in steals. In his final season, Kincade has shown the result of hard work over the summer on his shooting touch. He is third on the team with 11.5 points per game (17th in WCC) and leads the team with 16 three-pointers (tied with Brown). He is also 35-for-45 from the free throw line (6th in WCC). In addition, Kincade has added a pair of 20-point games this season (21 vs. CSUN; 22 vs. SUNY). He has also picked up his rebounding in the last month, leading the team in three of the last five games (including 11 against Denver). He is averaging 4.4 per game, leading the team with seven against the Bulldogs and adding 17 points on three three-pointers.
WORK HORSE
Freshmen Damian Martin has been a work horse for the Lions in his first season of collegiate basketball. Martin started his career with 23 minutes against UC Riverside and earned his first start in the win over Cal Poly. He played 39 minutes, including the entire second half against Portland. In 14 games he has averaged 5.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.20 assists and 1.43 steals. He is ranked fifth in the WCC in steals and 13th in assists while setting a career-high with 13 points against UCLA.
MAKING THEIR DEBUT
Joining Martin in their first year of play are freshman Matthew Knight and redshirt freshmen Antti Kasko and John Montgomery. Kasko made his first appearance against Northridge and was solid in 15 minutes of play. He is averaging 6.4 minutes per game and had a career-best six points against Cal State Fullerton. Montgomery gave the Lions a huge lift off the bench in the wins over Binghamton and CCSU, earning an assist and a defensive rebound against the Bearcats and hitting a crucial three-pointer with an assist, a steal and a rebound over CCSU. He has been big due to injuries, playing a career-high 19 minutes against Portland. He is averaging 7.8 minutes per game, 14.5 in the two conference games. Knight waited seven games to get his career started as he was finally cleared to play after bone spur surgery over the summer. Knight made his debut against UCLA, gathering three rebounds in six minutes of play. He scored his first points against Long Beach State, finishing with four.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
The Lions have posted their best non-conference record in eight seasons thanks in large part to its defense. LMU (entering the week) is among the conference leaders in most every defensive category this season, showing why in the win over Colgate holding them to a season low 31 percent shooting and 54 points. The Lions have held opponents to 41.4 percent (3rd in WCC) from the field and just 28.5 percent from the three-point line (2nd). They are allowing just 68.4 points per game (4th), forcing 16.8 turnovers (1st), while earning 7.14 steals (2nd) and 4.43 blocks per game (1st). They have held nine of their 14 opponents under 42 percent shooting for the game and four under 40 percent (SUNY - 39.2; CCSU - 32.8; UCLA - 31.7; Colgate - 31.0). They have kept four teams 20 percent or below from the three-point (UCR - 15.4; CP - 15.4; UCLA - 15.0; Colgate - 20.0). They had 11 blocks in the win over SUNY-Binghamton and nine against Portland, and they have had more than 10 steals three times (CSUN - 14; CCSU - 13; Denver - 11). Finally, they have forced three teams into 20 or more turnovers in games this season (CSUN - 22; UCLA - 21; SUNY - 20). Charles Brown ranks second in the WCC in steals with 27 (1.93 per game) and Damian Martin fifth with 20 (1.43 per game).
IN THE CLUTCH
The first recruit under Head Coach Steve Aggers, Sherman Gay has become the senior leader on the floor for the Lions. This season Gay has made a pair of clutch shots to help his team to its best start in eight seasons. Gay hit the game winner as time expired in the Lions' 58-57 win over Central Connecticut State and he then hit an identical shot as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime in the eventual win over Denver. Both shots came on offensive putbacks to lead LMU from behind in both games, including a seven-point deficit with less than three minutes against CCSU and a 12-point margin with eight minutes left against DU. He has scored more than 20 points four times this season, including his career-best 26 against DU and then 21 against Virginia. The week of Dec. 15, Gay averaged 23.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game to earn WCC Player of the Week honors. He averaged 36.5 minutes per game in the two games on the week, shooting 61.3 percent (19-for-31) from the field, hitting 75 percent (9-for-12) from the free throw line, five blocks and two assists. In the win over Denver, Gay went 11-for-14 from the field. He added nine rebounds, an assist and two blocks. He was at it again against Virginia, going 8-for-17 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line to score 21 points. He added seven rebounds and three blocks.
BLOCK PARTY
More from Gay... He had the best season of his career in 2002-03, setting the all-time single season record for blocks with 60. He snapped the record of 55 held by Richard Patruska and Silvester Kainga. With his record-setting season last year, he was able to shatter the all-time career record for blocks. He had three blocks against Virginia to break the blocks record held by Chris Knight with 97. He has 24 on the season to give him 111 in his career. After leading the WCC in blocks a year ago, Gay is second with 1.71 per game while teammate Chris Ayer is third with 1.46 per game.
MORE CAREER STATS
Junior Charles Brown is also making his way up the career stats as his 53 assists this season gives him 252 in his career. He now ranks ninth all-time in LMU history, replacing Tom Peabody (239) and Haywood Eaddy (234). He now trails Floyd Hooper (264) by 12 for eighth all-time. The all-time assist leader is Terrell Lowery with 689.
SAN DIEGO
USD plays just its 5th home game of the year when they host the LMU Lions Thursday ... USD is 3-1 in home games where they average 73.0 ppg and hold opponents to 65.8 ppg ... in those four home contests junior center Brice Vounangleads five Toreros in double-digit scoring at 18.0 ppg ... USD's last two nonconference games were road losses at Southwest Missouri State on Jan. 3rd (62-73) and New Mexico on Jan. 6th (75-88) ... at SMS, Brett Melton paced the way with 23 points, and at New Mexico the Toreros were lead by Brice Vounang (25 points, 8 rebounds) and Brandon Gay(24 points, 8 rebounds) ... Nick Lewis, who suffered a concussion less than 3 minutes into the New Mexico game, was listed questionable for the LMU game earlier in the week ... the Toreros finished their nonconference slate 3-12 and 0-11 in away games ... the Toreros have a balanced scoring attack with five players averaging in double-digits - Vounang (15.3), Brandon Gay(12.0), Nick Lewis(11.2), Brett Melton(10.9) and Brad Lechtenberg(10.1) ... among WCC players, junior wing Mike McGrainranks 2nd in assists at 6.4 apg and Brad Lechtenbergranks 2nd in 3-point percentage (.463).
- GO LIONS -
