After dropping their first West Coast Conference game of the season to sixth-ranked Gonzaga on Monday, the Loyola Marymount men's basketball team will hope to get back to their winning ways as they return home for a crucial two-game series in WCC play. The Lions will open the homestand with Santa Clara on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 7:05 p.m. LMU sits in second place in the WCC at 3-1 and will play a hungry Bronco team (1-2) that has given them fits the last three meetings. The game can be heard live on Lions' All-Access through KXLU 88.9 FM and LMULions.com.
Line-up changes: Daryl Pegram did not dress for the first time this season due to soreness in his knee against Northern Colorado and did not make the trip to Portland and Gonzaga. Also not on the trip was Adoyah Miller, who continues to be out of the line-up with a shoulder strain. Corey Counts, who was expected to earn more playing time, did not play after breaking his jaw when he was intentionally fouled against Northern Colorado. All three are not expected to play against Santa Clara and Saint Mary's. In addition, Vitor Boccardo, in his second season from Brazil, has left the team to tend to family matters back in Rio de Janiero. He had played 16 minutes in five games this season.
THE MATCH-UP
This will be the 123rd match-up between LMU and Santa Clara. The Broncos have a 75-47 edge in the series and are 36-22 when playing at LMU. The Broncos, who enter the game at 8-7 overall and 1-2 in the WCC after falling to San Diego 75-69 last Monday, took both games in the series and have won three of the last four after the teams split in 2004. The series is even in the last six meetings, each winning three. After defeating Portland to start conference, Santa Clara has dropped the last two, including an 81-68 decision at home to sixth-ranked Gonzaga. Two of the best big-men in the WCC will go at it in this one as Santa Clara's Travis Niesen averages 19.8 ppg and 6.9 rpg while LMU's Matthew Knight averages 16.4 and 9.5.
RECORD BOOK
Wes Wardrop, the fourth-year player from Anaheim leads the team with 75 assists, just three shy of his single season record of 78 he set as a freshman. He added four to his total against Portland and has cracked the top-10 list in LMU history. He now has 263 in his career replacing Tom Peabody for 10th all-time in career assists. Floyd Hooper (1977-78) is ninth with 264. Wardrop also leads the team with 44 three-pointers on the year, snapping his personal single season mark of 35 he set last year after hitting 10 in two games against Portland and Gonzaga. He has 124 in his career at LMU, hitting five against Portland, replacing . Senior Chris Ayer had four blocks against South Alabama, his second four-block game of the early season. With 18 blocks on the season, Ayer has made a major jump in the LMU record books. He entered the season tied for fifth all-time with 72 career blocks. He has moved to fourth all-time with 90 and needs 2 to tie Ime Odouk for third. The all-time record is held by Sherman Gay with 144.
DOUBLE-DOUBLES
The double-doubles by both Matthew Knight (22 points & 10 rebounds) and Chris Ayer (15 & 10) in the win over BYU in the season opener was the first time the Lions had teammates do it in the same game since Haywood Eaddy (21 pts, 10 assists) and Elton Mashack (17 pts, 11 reb) did it against San Francisco on Jan. 15, 1999. Ayer and Knight teamed up to do it again in the win over USF on Jan. 9 as Knight went for 22 points and 15 rebounds while Ayer went for 17 and 10. The two games with multiple players earning a double-double is the first time Lion teammates have done so since Ime Odouk and Wyking Jones did it in the 1994-95 season. Odouk and Jones did it on Jan. 20, 1995 against San Francisco (Jones - 10 pts, 11 reb.; Odouk - 15 pts, 12 reb.) and then on Feb. 10, 1994 against Portland (Jones - 18 pts, 10 reb.; Odouk - 18 pts, 10 reb.).
KNIGHT IN AND OUT
With his double-doubles against Portland and Gonzaga, Matthew Knight has earned three in WCC play, nine overall this season and 11 in his career. The nine in one season is the most since Terrell Lowery had 10 in the 1990-91. Knight's 11 is tied for 12th all-time in LMU history with Kenny Hotopp and Forrest McKenzie. During non-conference, Knight rattled off four straight double-doubles against South Alabama, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, and Montana, as he averaged 21.8 points and 13.3 rebounds in those four games. He became the first player in 11 seasons to claim four consecutive double-doubles. Wyking Jones last did it from Jan. 10, 1994 through Jan. 20, 1994. He is just the sixth player in LMU history to have a consecutive game stretch of four or more, joining a list that includes Jim Haderlein, Steve Smith, Hank Gathers, Brad Dean, and Jones. All five finished in the top-25 all-time in LMU scoring. Knight is currently seventh in the WCC in scoring with 16.4 points per game and leads the league in rebounding with 9.5 per game. He is also fifth in overall in field goal percentage (54.7), first in offensive rebounds (3.39), first in defensive rebounds (6.11), 10th in steals (1.28) and 10th in blocked shots (14). In WCC play he is averaging 21.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per contest, good for fourth and first, respectively. Knight earned Player of the Week honors in the WCC on Jan. 10 after averaging 22 ppg and 11 rpg in the home sweep to start WCC play.
30 AND 15
Matthew Knight scored 32 points with 18 rebounds against Long Beach State. The performance ranks as one of LMU's all-time best performances. He becomes just the seventh player in LMU history to score 30 or more points with 15 or more rebounds. After going just 4-for-13 from the field with nine points and six rebounds in the first half, he exploded in the second, going 9-for-12 with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Last season he was the first player since Ime Oduok in 1994 to have back-to-back double-double games. And he joins the Oduok as the last player to do back-to-back double-doubles in consecutive seasons. Jim Haderlein (Feb. 21, 1969 to Jan. 28, 1970) and Steve Smith (Jan. 4, 1972 to Dec. 4, 1972) hold the record with 20 consecutive games with a double-double.
WORK HORSE
Senior Wes Wardrop is proving to be the leader the Lions hoped he would be as he has become the Lions' workhorse and has exploded with the start of his final tour in the WCC. He has jumped his average more than four points the last five games thanks to 19 against San Diego State and San Diego and 18 against San Francisco, 25 against Portland and his career-high of 31 against Gonzaga on Monday. He is second on the team with 14.7 points per game in all games and in the four WCC games he is ranked third with 23.2 ppg. He is first on the team with 75 assists and tied for second with 23 steals. He was the first WCC Player of the Week of the 2005-06 season for his performance in guiding the Lions to an 83-71 win at BYU in their season opener. He finished with 19 points, four rebounds, four assists, and three steals. In conference play, he is third in scoring (23.2), fifth in field goal percentage (60.4), seventh in assists (3.5), 6th in three-point field goal percentage (53.8), and first in three-pointers made (3.5).
AYER TIME
Like his four-year teammate, senior Chris Ayer just keeps adding to his record-breaking season. For the first time in his high school and college career, Ayer delivered the game winner at the buzzer against San Diego, hitting his 17th point on the game. With 17 more against San Francisco, he has moved his averaged to 10 points per game this season, the first time he has ever averaged double-digits in his collegiate career. This season he has had his first 20-point games of his career, including a career-best 22 against Northern Colorado and 21 against Western Michigan. Ayer is ranked 24th (all games) in scoring (10.0 ppg), seventh with 1.0 blocks per game, ninth in shooting percentage from the field (50.4), and seventh with 6.1 rebounds per game.
THE COACHES' POLL
According to the coaches of the West Coast Conference, Loyola Marymount University men's basketball has been picked to finish in the top half of the WCC standings this season. The coaches have the Lions taking fourth in the 2005-06 season, and if the Lions under first year head coach Rodney Tention hold true to the coaches' thinking, it will be the best finish in 10 seasons. The Lions earned 40 points in the annual coaches poll and round out the top half of the eight-team conference. Both LMU and Gonzaga return the most experienced squads in the WCC. Both the Bulldogs and Lions return four starters, the most among any team in the WCC. LMU will return 12 letterwinners for coach Tention, who takes over the Lions' program after eight seasons as an assistant with Arizona.
THE WCC CONNECTION
The new coaching staff for the LMU men's basketball team is no stranger to the West Coast Conference. Head Coach Rodney Tention has the strongest ties, graduating from San Francisco in 1988 after a three-year playing career. Tention averaged 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds during his time at USF, playing for Jim Brovelli, who recently served as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets. The ties do not stop there. Tention played his freshman season at the Air Force Academy, spending a season under Head Coach Hank Egan, who was a one-time WCC coach. The staff joining Tention this season as assistants, Brian Priebe, Calvin Byrd and Steve Wachs, also have ties to the WCC. Priebe's ties come as the only holdover from last year's staff. He enters his sixth season in the league. Byrd joins to the program after four seasons with Pacific. Before his time with the Tigers, Byrd spent two seasons (1999-2001) as an assistant at USF. Wachs is a 1996 graduate of Loyola Marymount, spending four seasons as a student manager and one seasons the director of basketball operations under John Olive.
WELL EARNED
Redshirt junior John Montgomery walked-on to the Lions' squad his first three seasons and as he entered his fourth year with LMU he was rewarded with a scholarship. He has lived up to coach Rodney Tention's decision, proving big off the depleted bench for the Lions. In the last five games of non-conference for the Lions', Montgomery averaged nearly 24 minutes a game, nearly triple his average of his first two seasons (6.9 per game). In that stretch he has averaged 5.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 12 assists. His career average entering the season was 1.1 ppg, 0.6 rpg, and 22 total assists in two seasons.
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
The Lions' roster for 2005-06 is one of international flavor, featuring four players with international roots. Making up bulk of them are the three Australians, Damian Martin, Matthew Knight and Marko Deric. All three come from Australia's Institute for Sport (AIS), earning valuable experience and getting plug into the country's national program. Both Knight and Martin played with the Under-18 team that won the World Cup and played this past year with the Under-21 team. Deric's roots go beyond Perth, Australia, where he grew. His family migrated from Serbia when he was a child. Also joining the Lions' roster is Adoyah Miller, who grew-up in Verona, Italy. Miller was born in New York but spent more than 15 years of his childhood before moving back to the United States in 1998 to begin high school in Boston.
HISTORICAL 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 569 games the Lions have played since the three-point line was instituted, the Lions have hit three-pointers in 567 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 297 straight games heading into the game against Santa Clara.
WORKING OVERTIME
LMU improved to 1-1 in overtime games this season with an 84-75 win in double overtime against San Francisco. LMU is 24-38 in overtime games with the first overtime game coming in the 1926-27 season against California Christian College, a 16-14 win for the Lions. As for double overtime, the Lions improved to 7-1. The longest game in LMU history was a five-overtime affair against Fresno State in 1957. The Lions lost 92-90.
GERSTEN PAVILION
LMU has won three straight in Gersten Pavilion and are 4-3 at home this season. The Lions finished the 2003-04 season with a record of 8-6, which was the best record at home since the 1998-99 season when they went 9-5. Opening on Jan. 15, 1981, the men's basketball team has set many records, including several national NCAA records. More memorable moments in Gersten's history include the Lions' 16-game winning streak from Feb. 28, 1987 through Nov. 28, 1988. Gersten is also the home of the all-time NCAA Division I highest scoring game, a 186-140 win by the Lions over US International on Jan. 5, 1991. The Lions are now 179-147 all-time in Gersten.
NEWEST ADDITIONS
Loyola Marymount University men's basketball added a pair of California high school All-CIF performers during the early signing period in November. Terron Sutton (6-9, 230, F, Price High School) and Brad Sweezy (6-6, 195, F, Ocean View High School) signed National Letters of Intent to attend LMU starting in the fall of 2006, LMU Head Coach Rodney Tention announced on Wednesday. Sutton will come to LMU after playing four seasons at Price High School, helping the team to three straight CIF Championships heading into his senior season. In his junior season he exploded into a role of team leader, earning first-team All-CIF and first-team all-league. Like Sutton, Sweezy earned All-CIF honors and first-team all-league honors while playing at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, Calif. Sutton became a full time starter as a junior and averaged eight points and nine rebounds per contest. His career-best just happen to be in the title game, as he earned a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards. Price enters the 2005-06 season with Sutton as a senior captain. In 2004-05, Ocean View High School finished the season 15-8 overall and 9-3 in the Golden West league as Sweezy earned All-CIF Division III-AA and All-Golden West League honors. He averaged 15 points and eight rebounds per game. Sweezy finished his junior season with 16 games in double figures, including a career-high 26 in the final game of the season against Artesia High School. His previous high was 19 points as he was the leading scorer in a 57-43 win over Costa Mesa. As a sophomore Sweezy helped the team to a perfect 11-0 record in league play and a 21-6 overall in 2003-04.
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