March 4, 2004

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BRIEFLY
The first round of the 2004 West Coast Conference Championships will be deja vu for the Loyola Marymount University men's basketball team (14-13/5-9), who enter the tournament with its best record in eight seasons, as they will open this year's tournament with the University of Portland (11-17/5-9) on Friday, March 5 at Santa Clara University, starting at 6 p.m. This will be the second consecutive season the two teams will meet as the sixth and seventh seeds, respectively. The Lions defeated the Pilots in last year's first round, 65-63, which ended a six-year skid in the WCC tournament for LMU.

WITH HONORS
Leading the Loyola Marymount University men's basketball team to its most successful season since 1996, senior Sherman Gay put some well deserved honors on an impressive senior season as he along with freshman Damian Martin were given West Coast Conference honors. Gay, who became just the 16th player in 97 years of LMU basketball to play in more than 100 games, became the first player in LMU history to earn WCC Defensive Player of the Year honors. The Carson, Calif., native was also named first-team All-West Coast Conference by the league's coaches. Martin, in his first season from Australia, became just the second freshman in LMU history to earn WCC freshman honors, as he was named to the WCC All-Freshman team.

THE PROOF
Gay, the first recruit under Head Coach Steve Aggers, is having the best season of his four-year career and one of the best senior campaigns in LMU history. His 15.7 points (fifth in the WCC) and 5.4 rebounds per game is the best point/rebound average combination for any senior since Hank Gathers had 29.0 points and 10.8 rebounds per game his senior campaign. Gay's point average is the best for a senior since Jim Williamson had 16.7 points per game in 1996-97. Gay became just the fifth player in more than 30 years to lead the conference in blocked shots in back-to-back seasons. He has 51 this season, which gives him 138 in his career. That mark is the all-time record at LMU and is ranked 10th all-time in the WCC. He also added a career-best 31 steals this season.

MORE EVIDENCE
As for Martin, he continues a trend under Aggers of talented freshman. Martin has been a work horse for the Lions in his first season of collegiate basketball. The Australia native 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 27 games he is third on the team with 29.4 minutes per game and averages 4.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while earning 80 assists and 42 steals (including a career-best six against USF). He is ranked sixth in the WCC in steals and 12th in assists while setting a career-high with 13 points against UCLA. Martin's assist total is fourth all-time at LMU among freshman, while his 42 steals is second all-time on the freshman list. He needs one more steal to tie Brandon Worthy for the all-time mark. Jim Williamson was the only other LMU freshman to earn WCC honors as he was named Freshman of the Year in 1994.

WCC TOURNAMENT
With the conclusion of the regular season in the West Coast Conference, the WCC Tournament will begin Friday, March 5 with the first round of the men's tournament. The 2004 Tournament will be held at the Leavey Center on the campus of Santa Clara University. The tournament format remains the same as last year, as the first round match-ups will be the No. 6 seed Pilots against the No. 7 Lions in game one and No. 5 Santa Clara against No. 8 San Diego in game two. The number one seed goes to Gonzaga with No. 2 going to Saint Mary's. Both have a bye to the semifinals on Sunday. The winner of the first round game 1 will face No. 3 Pepperdine while the game 2 winner will face No. 4 San Francisco in the quarterfinals. The winner of the quarterfinals will take on either Gonzaga or Saint Mary's with the championship held on Monday, March 8.

FIRST ROUND MATCH-UP
Like every year, when meeting a conference opponent in the WCC tournament, it is the third time around. The Lions hope that the third time is the charm as the Pilots won both meetings in the regular season. Due to a major winter storm, the first game of the series was moved from a Thursday meeting to a Monday with the Pilots earning a 77-68 win on Jan. 12. The Pilots then took a 74-59 advantage in Portland on Feb. 5. The Lions lead the all-time series 37-20 while going 2-1 against the Pilots in the WCC tournament.

FAREWELL
The WCC tournament will be the final games for the careers of seniors Sherman Gay, Keith Kincade and Jason Dickens. The three have played in a combined 302 collegiate basketball games, with Gay heading the list with 107 games played at LMU, which ranks 12th all-time. Kincade has played in 99 in his career, 79 at LMU and 20 in one year at West Virginia. Dickens has played in 96 in his career with 46 coming at LMU and 50 coming in two seasons at Davidson.

UNDER 60
With a 66-48 win over Santa Clara Thursday, Feb. 12, the LMU defense has held opponents under 60 points six times this season, which is the most in any one season in more than 40 years. The last team to have more than six games holding an opponent under 60 points was the 1962-63 squad coached by John Arndt. They held teams under 60 points in seven games that season. The 48 points allowed against Santa Clara on Feb. 12 was the fewest points since they held Saint Mary's to just 48 on Feb. 15, 1985. On Nov. 26, 1984 that same team opened the season allowing just 43 points to LA Baptist. Under Aggers, the Lions are 13-1 in games holding opponents under 60 points.

ON THE DEFENSIVE
The key to the Lions best record in eight season was their defense. In winning three of their last five games, the Lions had double digit steals with 10 against the Broncos and 11 against the Toreros. In addition they forced 17 turnovers against SCU and 18 against Pepperdine, the 15th and 16th time an opponent has had 17 or more turnovers in a game this season. Against the Waves, the Lions held them 13 points below their average entering into the game. In the WCC, LMU has two players ranked in the top 10 in steals with junior Charles Brown first in the conference with 2.04 steals per game (55) and freshman Damian Martin fourth with 1.56 per game (42). The same can be said for blocks, as senior Sherman Gay is first with 1.89 per game (51) and sophomore Chris Ayer is fifth with 1.04 per contest (27).

KNOCKING OFF THE RUST
Freshman Matthew Knight has been impressive in 10 of the last 11 games for the Lions. After sitting out the Lions' first six games of the season due to ankle surgery over the summer, the first-year player from Australia averaged just under six minutes per game while playing eight of the Lions first 16 games. However, in the last 10 games he has played, he has averaged 21.4 minutes per game. In that span he is averaging 8.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Against UNC Knight had 14 points with five rebounds in 20 minutes. In his second start he had eight points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes against Portland. He played a career-best 30 minutes against eighth-ranked Gonzaga, scoring 10 points with a team-high five rebounds. He added 10 points and four rebounds against Pepperdine. Due to a concussion suffered against the Waves, Knight did not play against Saint Mary's. He rebounded against USF, going for seven points and five rebounds. Heading into the WCC tournament he is 11th all-time among freshman with 3.50 rebounds per game.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS
In addition to the senior leadership by Sherman Gay, senior Keith Kincade and junior Charles Brown have become the leaders of the young Lions squad that features 11 freshman and sophomores on the 15-man roster. Kincade is having his best season of his collegiate career as he sits second on the team in scoring with 12.6 per game (16th in the WCC) and third in rebounds with 4.2 (24th in the WCC). He sparked the win over USD with 11 consecutive points in the second half to finish with 23 as he and fellow senior Sherman Gay had 28 of the team's 29 second half points. He has become the Lions' outside shooter, second on the team with 31 three-pointers, double his career number heading into this season. The Norwalk, Calif., native is also eighth in the WCC in free throw shooting at 77.3 percent. Brown has continued his success from a year ago, ranking third on the team with 11.5 points per game (20th in the WCC) while leading the squad in assists with 102 (7th in the WCC) and in steals with 55 (1st in WCC). Brown had possibly his 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 to earn WCC Player of the Week honors (Jan. 5) for the second time in his career.

SCORING MACHINE
Senior Sherman Gay has become one of the Lions' biggest scoring threats in at least five seasons. With his 24 points in the win San Diego, the Carson, Calif., native has tallied 20 or more points in eight games of his senior campaign. He currently sits fourth in the West Coast Conference with 15.7 points per game. Gay has more 20-point games by a single player since Haywood Eaddy had eight in the 1998-99 season. Wyking Jones had eight games with 20 or more points in the 1993-94 season and the last player to have more than that was Terrell Lowery in his senior season of 1991-92 with 19, which included 12 with more than 30 points. Lowery finished leading the league that season with 26 points per game. It was the last Lion to lead the WCC in scoring.

Last to score 30:	Ben Ammerman (30)
		at Pepperdine (1/21/98)
Last to score 40:	Terrell Lowery (41)
		at San Diego (2/15/92)
Last to score 50:	Bo Kimble (50)
		vs. San Francisco (2/4/90)

20 AS A TEAM
Seniors Sherman Gay and Keith Kincade each had back-to-back 20-point games this season, the first time in five seasons a player has gone consecutive games with more than 20 points. Players have scored 20 or more points 15 times this season, with Gay leading the way with eight, Kincade with five and junior Charles Brown with two. It is the most in a single season for each of the players in their careers. In addition, it is the most 20-point scorers in five seasons as a team. The Lions used to do it with regularity, having a player over 20 in 31 of the 32 games in the Elite Eight season of 1989-90 and every game in the 1988-89 season, with every game but seven with a player over 30.

WITH THE ASSIST
Junior Charles Brown, voted as the team's MVP in 2002-03 after leading the squad in points, assists and steals, is starting to make his mark on the LMU record books for dishing it out. Brown once again leads the team with 102 assists (3.81 per game), ranked seventh in the WCC. With this season's total, he brings his career mark to 302, ranking him seventh all-time, replacing Corey Gaines who had 271 assists. Brown is the first of a group of talented assist artists under Head Coach Steve Aggers, as freshman Damian Martin has moved to fourth all-time among freshman in LMU history with 80 assists. Martin's six assists against Pepperdine replaced sophomore Wes Wardrop, who had 78 assists in his freshman season a year ago. Brandon Worthy, another Aggers' recruit, added 71 in his freshman season last year to rank seventh on that list and Brown sits 11th with 62 in his first season.

MORE CAREER MARKS
Junior Charles Brown, who led the West Coast Conference in 2003-04 with 61 steals, has added to his career total with a league-leading 55 in the 2003-04 campaign, giving him 136 in his career at LMU. His four steals against Pepperdine replaces Hank Gathers for eighth all-time in LMU history and his two against Saint Mary's replaces Keith Smith for seventh all-time. Brown's 61 last year ranked sixth best in a single season in LMU history and his 55 this season is 11th best all-time. He had 20 in his first season.

GRAND THEFT
In four seasons under Head Coach Steve Aggers, the Lions have had some of the most prolific steal leaders in freshman history at LMU. Last season Brandon Worthy set the all-time freshman mark for steals with 43. This season freshman Damian Martin is on his heals with 42 heading into the Saint Mary's game. Wes Wardrop had 33 to rank third and Charles Brown sits sixth with 20 two years ago.

IN THE CLUTCH
Sherman Gay has been a clutch performer for the Lions this season. In addition to being among the conference leaders in scoring and rebounding, Gay is third in the league in field goal percentage at 55.6 percent. He is also third in offensive rebounds with 2.46. With all the stats, Gay has also made a pair of clutch shots to help his team to its best non-conference record 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.

BLOCK PARTY
More from Gay... Gay set the single season record with 60 blocks as a junior in 2002-03 and with his three blocks against Virginia he broke the career blocks record held by Chris Knight with 97. He has 51 on the season to give him 138 in his career for the all-time record. His 51 this season ranks fourth all-time. Sophomore Chris Ayer had 30 in his first season in 2002-03 to rank ninth and set the all-time freshman record. He has 27 this season and needs one more to join Gay in holding two top-10 marks for blocks at LMU. Gay ranks first in the WCC while Ayer is fifth.

MAKING THEM COUNT
Thanks to the 74-56 win over Northern Colorado, the Lions improved to 9-4 on the season in non-conference play, the best start since the 1995-96 season when they went 10-4 in non-conference play. 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. With the win over Santa Clara, the Lions earned its 12th win on the season, the most since the team had 18 in the 1995-96 season.

FROM THREE
Since the three-point field goal was introduced in the 1986-87 season, Loyola Marymount men's basketball has had just one game where they have not had a three-pointer. In the 518 games the Lions have played since the three-point line was instituted, the Lions have hit three-pointers in 517 of them. The only "miss" came on Dec. 19, 1995 when the Lions went 0-for-6 in an 82-80 win over Hawaii. That game snapped a 271 consecutive three-pointer streak for the Lions. They currently have made a three-pointer in 246 straight games heading into the WCC Tournament game against Portland on March 5.

INJURY BUG CONTINUES
Injuries have been a factor for the Lions in 2003-04 as four starters have missed starts due to injuries and two other key players off the bench have missed games. The Lions have been without sophomore Brandon Worthy, a projected starter, for the entire 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 John Haywood suffered a broken bone in his left hand and will be out the remainder of the season due to surgery. He averaged nearly 14 minutes a game in the Lions' first 11 contests before becoming injured. Also missing games due to injury or illness this season was Wes Wardrop (foot sprain), Chris Ayer (flu), Jason Dickens (back strain), and Matthew Knight (ankle surgery, concussion).

- GO LIONS -