Feb. 5, 2005
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San Francisco, CA (Feb. 5) -- Loyola Marymount (10-11/2-6) will head to San Francisco (13-8/4-4) on Saturday, Feb. 5 for a game that will be a major statement game for both teams. The Lions, who entered San Diego on an emotional high after a big win against rival Pepperdine, struggled on the boards and fell 77-70 in a game that was similar to the Lions early season setback to UC Riverside. As for San Francisco, they dropped their first home game of the season on Thursday against Pepperdine.
The Lions have a chance at their first sweep of San Francisco the 1990-91 season. It will be tough task as San Francisco enters the game with a 10-1 record at home and 13-8 overall. They will be extra motivated coming off their first home loss of the season to Pepperdine on Thursday.
USF leads the series 95-30 after the Lions snapped a 132-game skid to the Dons in the earlier meeting on Jan. 7. After more than 11,000 miles and three weeks on the road, the Lions were glad to back home as they earned a 68-65 win over San Francisco to begin West Coast Conference play.
The Lions featured a balanced attack, getting contribution throughout the roster with eight players earning five or more points. Sophomore Matthew Knight led the Lions with 12 and junior John Haywood had his best offensive game of the season with 11. Junior Dustin Brown helped the Lions to a plus-four edge on the boards (38-34), grabbing a career high 11. While the Lions used a balanced attack, USF relied on a two-headed attack from Tyrone Riley and John Cox as they combined for 46 of the 65 points. Cox gave the Dons a 64-61 lead with 2:04 remaining on a lay-in. LMU's defense clamped down, as the Dons would be held without a field goal the rest of the way.
Knight drained a pair of free throws with 1:46 remaining to make it 64-63. After a scramble for a loose ball, Cox got his hands on it and hit just one of two free throws to make it 65-63 with a 1:13 remaining. On the next trip, senior Charles Brown gave the Lions the lead for good, 66-65, on a three ball with 1:04 remaining. The Lions finished the game shooting 16-for-18 (88.9 percent) from the charity stripe while USF went 16-for-25 (64.0 percent). The Lions defense held USF to just 36.8 percent shooting. Cox and Riley combined to hit 14-for-29 while the rest of the team went just 7-for-28 (25 percent). LMU went 24-for-52 from the field (46.2 percent).
The Lions are coming off a game against San Diego that was uncomfortably similar to the early non-conference game against UC Riverside for the Lions. LMU entered the UCR game off a big road win with lots of confidence, like they did Thursday against USD. And like the San Diego game, the Lions struggled out of the gates. Against UCR they trailed 18-10 10 minutes in and against San Diego they trailed 22-10 eight minutes in. But in both games they went on late runs, including a 15-4 run to take the lead against San Diego. They took a lead into halftime in both games only to see second half runs by both the Toreros and Highlanders to put separation that the Lions couldn't overcome.
In both games sophomore guard Brandon Worthy did everything he could to keep the Lions in it. The Riverside game saw Worthy score a career-high 26 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-4 from the three-point line. Against USD he went 8-for-9 from the field, 3-for-3 from long distance to finish with 19 points, four assists, five steals and a block. The Lions responded to the tough loss against Riverside by winning five of their next six games.
After wrapping up the weekend road trip, the Lions will head home to a full housea. Less than a week after LMU had its fifth largest men's basketball crowd in program history and first capacity crowd in 15 years, the Lions announced Thursday, Feb. 3, that the game against Gonzaga on Saturday, Feb. 12 is sold out. The student section will be open to those with a valid LMU OneCard. Last Saturday the Lions defeated Pepperdine 63-46 in front of a standing-room only crowd of 4,302.
This will be the first season since 1989-90 that the Lions have had multiple sellouts in a single season. With the sellout the Lions are pace to have its largest season average since the 1992-93 season. The Lions will take on Portland on Thursday, Feb. 10 and then take on Gonzaga in the final homestand of the season. The weekend is part of a full slate of activities during Parent's Weekend on the LMU campus. In addition, the Lions will honor senior Charles Brown and four-year student assistant Tim Collins. Brown became the 27th player in LMU history to score 1,000 career points with his 11 against Pepperdine. Tickets to the Portland game are still available by calling (310) 338-LION.
Sophomore Matthew Knight continues to be the go-to-guy for the Lions, scoring 25 points with eight rebounds on 10-for-16 shooting. It was his seventh 20-point game of the season. He also earned his second straight double-double with 19 points and a career-best 12 rebounds against Northern Arizona. The Australian native is the first player since Ime Oduok in 1994 to have back-to-back double-double games.
On the season he has scored in double figures in 18 of the Lions' 20 games. He currently averages 16.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and he enters the week ranked eighth in the West Coast Conference in scoring and 10th in rebounding. His average is 11.2 points per game better than last season, the best turnaround among returning players from the 2003-04 season in the WCC. He also entered the week fourth in the conference in field goal percentage as he is now shooting 54.3 percent. He has been getting it done on the offensive end of the boards and is leading the WCC with 2.95 offensive rebounds per game.
The game against the Dons can be heard on the Lions' Audio Network through KXLU 88.9 FM and www.LMULions.com.
- GO LIONS -
