Nov. 6, 2006

Los Angeles, CA (Nov. 6) - There was a little of everything in Loyola Marymount's first live competition of the season as they earned a 61-57 win over Cal Poly Pomona at Gersten Pavilion on Monday night. The Lions doubled-up the Broncos early in the second half only to rely on a bank shot on a free throw to secure the win.

The Lions were led by senior Brandon Worthy's 16 points as he played 34 minutes. No other Lion scored in the double figures as the Lions other go to guy, senior Matthew Knight, did not play due to Head Coach Rodney Tention wanting to give him an extra day rest.

"We will be facing a completely different team on Friday," said Tention, whose Lions open with Oral Roberts on Friday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Gersten Pavilion. "If we do not correct some things and play like we did tonight, it could get ugly. That is a very good team coming in here on Friday and we better be ready to play."

Freshman Max Craig played solid in the start for the Lions, playing 22 minutes with nine points, five rebounds, a steal while going 3-for-4 from the field and from the free throw line. Also with nine points was sophomore Marko Deric with five rebounds, hitting 3-for-3 from the free throw line.

"We showed some good things but we were not consistent. I am very confident in Max's play right now. He came in and did a good job for us," said Tention. "We just have to get focused on getting better."

The Lions had everything working early in the second half as they built a 45-23 lead on a jumper by senior Derick Grubb with 16:51 reamining. The Lions, however, managed only 13 points the next 16 minutes as Cal Poly cut the lead to 58-57 with just 26 seconds remaining. After Worthy, one of the Lions' best free throw shooters in his career, missed two front ends of a 1-and-1, it was Deric who iced the game for the Lions.

LMU forced three straight turnovers by the Broncos and Deric picked one of those up and was fouled. He hit the front end with a hard bank shot to make it 59-57 with eight seconds remaining and then buried the second for the 60-57 lead. Junior Jon Ziri then forced another turnover with a steal and hit a free throw to end the contest.