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Adoyah Miller (back) and Brandon Worthy

Men's Basketball

WCC Leader First in Final Two Home Games

Feb. 23, 2007

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    Loyola Marymount will play the final two games of the regular season when Santa Clara and Saint Mary's come to Gersten Pavilion. The Broncos, who currently lead the West Coast Conference by one game with one of their only two conference's losses coming to LMU on Jan. 27, will start things off on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be on CSTV and on Lions' All-Access through KXLU 88.9 FM and LMULions.com. It is Senior Weekend as five Lions will play their final games at Gersten.

    GERSTEN FINALE
    This will be the final games for five LMU seniors, four of them in their fifth year of college basketball. Brandon Worthy, Matthew Knight, Derick Grubb, Adoyah Miller and John Montgomery. will play their final games at Gersten Pavilion this weekend. As a group they have combined to play 422 games heading into the game against Santa Clara. The other half of the Lions' roster includes five scholarship freshmen in Max Craig, Mason Maynard, Brad Sweezy, Terron Sutton and Shawn Deadwiler. Seniors and freshmen combine for 10 of the Lions 16 roster spots.

    DEFENSE
    The key in the Lions' 12 wins this season has be on the defensive end. By scoring 27 points off 18 San Diego turnovers, the Lions improved to 11-3 overall and 4-1 in league play when scoring more points off turnovers than their opponents. The Lions put up the second most steals on the season with 13, forcing San Diego into 18 turnovers in the process. The Lions scored 27 points off turnovers while holding the Toreros to just 36 percent shooting, 28 percent in the second half, the lowest by any opponent this season. Down by nine with 14:03 to play, LMU held the Toreros to just three field goals the rest of the game for the six point win (see more on LMU's defense on page 5).

    MOVING UP
    Senior Matthew Knight played in his 100th game against USD, playing just four minutes due to a concussion suffered when he hit his head on the floor going for a rebound. He did not play against USF but came back strong against Pepperidne Saturday, scoring 29 points on 12-for-16 shooting. His career points total is now 1,427, replacing Rick Adelman (1965-68) for 11th all-time in LMU history. He needs five points to tie Ed Bento (1959-62) for 10th. Knight also has 194 rebounds this season to give him 722 in his career at LMU, tying Brad Dean (1972-75) for seventh. Knight is just the seventh player in LMU history to rank in the top-15 in both scoring and rebounds. He joins Jim Haderlein (1968-71), Hank Gathers (1987-90), Ed Bento (1959-62), Forrest McKenzie (1981-86), Mike Yoest (1984-88) and Greg Hunter (1975-79).

    LOST IN TRANSITION
    The 2006-07 season began with high expectations, picked to finish second by most polls and by the WCC coaches' themselves. The Lions started the season 5-2 with the same starting rotation. For the next 15 games things were anything but stable as they were forced to change their line-up 10 times while featuring nine different players and going no more than three games with the same line-up. Included in the change was the loss of preseason All-American candidate Brandon Worthy for the year with a torn ACL. They went 1-6 in the first half of the WCC in the process. Against Santa Clara, the Lions featured their 10th different line-up of the season as Damian Martin and Matthew Knight were the only two in the line-up who started the first game of the season. John Montgomery, Adoyah Miller and Marko Deric joined them and the new line-up went five straight games together, posting a 4-1 mark in the process with two of the wins against the top two teams in the WCC. The line-up was forced to change for the 11th time in the last 20 games due to the injury Knight suffered against USD.

    LMU VS SANTA CLARA
    Santa Clara and LMU will meet for the 126th time on Saturday. Santa Clara leads the series 76-49 while going 36-23 in Los Angeles. The Lions earned a 74-71 win in Santa Clara on Jan. 27, the last time the Broncos have lost as they enter the game at 20-7 overall and 10-2 in the WCC. LMU is 12-16 and 4-8. In the January win, LMU had its best shooting game in eight seasons, going 61 percent from the floor. Knight had 20 points and 10 boards in the win.

    BECOMING A LEADER
    Damian Martin (6-2, 200, Jr., NSW, Australia), the fourth-year player from Australia who was forced to serve a medical redshirt season in 2005-06 due to a torn Achilles tendon suffered while playing the Australian National Team, returned this season and with the loss of Brandon Worthy has been asked to take much of the load. As conference play continues, Martin has answered the call. He has become possibly the best defender in the WCC, entering Saturday's game with 58 steals, cracking the top-10 in LMU history. He has moved into the career top-10, as his two against Pepperidne moved him ahead of Jeff Fryer (1987-90) for seventh. Overall he averages 5.1 rebounds per game (ranked 11th in the WCC), 3.36 assists (8th in WCC) and 2.07 Steals (2nd in WCC). In WCC games, he is first in steals (2.42). Martin posted a career-high in points in back-to-back nights, going for 16 on 7-for-12 shooting against USF and then went for 18 on 8-for-11 shooting against USD. On the week, he averaged 17.5 points 9.5 rebounds (including a career best 14 against USF), 5.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks. He went for six points, six rebounds, two blocks and four steals against Pepperdine and then went for eight points, eight assists, four steals and no turnovers against Santa Clara. The increasing numbers continues a trend in his first full season in two years. He went for 11 assists, the most in 10 years, against New Mexico State. He followed that with an impressive 10 rebounds, a school-record nine steals, and six assists in the win over Boise State.

    A KNIGHT'S TALE
    The four-year career of senior Matthew Knight has been defined by the double-double. The Australian native earned his 23rd career double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds against USF and his 24th with 12 points and 10 boards against Pepperdine. Had his second straight double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Santa Clara. Overall, he had two as a sophomore in 2004-05, then broke out for 17 in 2005-06. He has six this season for 25 total, replacing Ime Oduok for fifth all-time in LMU history. His 17 last year was the most since Hank Gathers had 26 in the 1988-89 season and ranks him seventh all-time for single season double-doubles. He didn't get the double-double against Boise State with nine rebounds but equaled a career-best with 32 points. By playing just four minutes Saturday, Knight's numbers remained second in the WCC in scoring at 16.9 points per game but fell to second in rebounds at 7.8.

    Miller's Time
    For the second time this season, senior Adoyah Miller was named by the West Coast Conference as the Player of the Week for his play against Portland and Gonzaga on Feb. 3 and Feb. 5. The fifth-year player continues his turn-around campaign. Against Portland, he went 6-for-11 from the floor, hitting 5-for-9 from beyond the arc to net 17 points. He added a rebound, three assists in the win. In the big win Monday, he went 3-for-7 from the field, all three coming from the three-point line on four attempts. However, it was charity work that got the Lions the win. He went 12-for-14 from the free throw line (86 percent). Miller earned his first Player of the Week honor on Dec. 26 for his performance against Boise State and Long Beach State. Against USD, he led the Lions and all scorers with 19 points, the ninth time this season he has led the team in scoring. In league games, Miller leads the WCC with 2.83 three-pointers per game, ranking fifth with 2.36 in all games played. Overall he is ranked 15th in scoring at 12.0 points per game, coming in at 7th in WCC games at 14.9 points per game (which leads the team). His 39.3 percent in all games is ranked seventh. Miller's numbers are all the more impressive as he appeared in just 10 games in his first two seasons at LMU due to injuries. He had scored 56 points with seven three-pointers in his first two campaigns. This season he has 335 points and 66 three pointers, the third most in a decade at LMU. He needs just two more three-pointers to crack into the top-10 all-time for three-pointers in a season.

    RECENT NOTES

  • Fifth-year senior John Montgomery set a career-high in points in back-to-back games, going for 11 against Portland and then hitting 12 in the win over Gonzaga. He shattered that two games later with 20 points against Pepperdine on Feb. 17. Against USD he went for another 10, giving him four out of the last five games in double digits. Since being moved to the starting line-up permently seven games ago, Montgomery has responded. In the last seven games he has averaged 10.7 points, 3.9 assists, 2.6 rebounds in 28 minutes per contest. He is shooting 52.2 percent (24-for-46) from the field and 50 percent (11-for-22) from the three-point line. He has also hit 16-for-19 from the charity stripe (84.2 percent), hitting 7-for-8 in the final minute of games.

  • For the first time on the season the Lions had four players in double digits in the win over Portland, led by junior Jon Ziri, who came off the bench with 17 points to tie a career high, going 10-for-12 from the free throw line in the 74-59 win over Portland. Senior Adoyah Miller added 17, senior John Montgomery added a career-best 11 and senior Matthew Knight chipped in 13 points and six rebounds. The Lions had their best half of the season to open the game, shooting 64 percent to build a lead as big as 20. They bettered that effort with four players in double digits against Pepperdine, shooting 66.7 percent in the second half against the Waves.

  • Free throws were a big part of the Lions' wins the last week. In the second half against Portland, Jon Ziri entered the game hitting 54.6 percent from the charity stripe on the season (22-for-39) and 46.4 percent in his career. While his teammates struggled, going a combined 6-for-19 (31.6 percent), Ziri raised his season average over eight percent in the win by going 10-for-12. Ziri would score 10 of the Lions remaining 13 points, all from the charity stripe, to clinch it in the final five minutes. In the win over Gonzaga, John Montgomery and Adoyah Miller combined to go 6-for-6 in the final 23 seconds to clinch the win. Miller went 12-for-14 in the win over Gonzaga. Against San Diego, the Lions went just 10-for-15 as a team but Montgomery burried both free throws with 11.8 to play to turn the game to a two posession contest.

  • The win over Santa Clara on Jan. 27 saw the Lions shoot 60.9 percent from the field, hitting 28-for-46 on the game, including a 13-for-19 clip (68.4 percent) in the second half. It was the best shooting percentage in eight years, dating back to a win over Saint Mary's on Jan. 29, 1999 when the Lions hit 63.8 percent shooting.

  • The Lions went to the offensive glass early and often against USF and USD in the first meetings. They had 19 offensive boards to out-rebound USF 44-34 on Saturday and then did one better with 22 offensive boards to out-rebound USD 41-31. The 22 offensive rebounds is the most since the Lions had 22 against Long Beach State on Nov. 30, 2005. In 2005-06 they went for 20 or more offensive boards three times and finished with single digit offensive boards just four times in 30 games. This season they have been in double digits in 17 of the 20 games while averaging 16.5 offensive boards in WCC play.

  • The Lions finished the game against UC Irvine with just six turnovers. According to LMU records it equals the lowest in program history since it joined the WCC in 1955. The six turnovers is the lowest since the Lions had six against Santa Clara in January of 2003. The Lions also committed just six on Jan. 16, 1993 against Gonzaga.

  • The Lions became just the third West Coast Conference school to reach the finals of the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout (Portland and Gonzaga). They defeated host Alaska-Anchorage 69-58 in the quarterfinals and then took care of Pacific in a thrilling double overtime come-from-behind win, 88-85. LMU fell to Cal in the finals, 78-70. Seniors Bradon Worthy and Matthew Knight were both named to the All-Tournament team.

  • The Lions have played three overtime games this season, going 2-1 in those games. LMU claimed double overtime wins over Pacific and Boise State but fell to USF in a single overtime. The Lions are 4-2 under Head Coach Rodney Tention in overtime, going 2-1 in Tention's first season. LMU is 27-39 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 9-1 with the win over Boise State, winning their sixth straight. The longest game in LMU history was a five-overtime affair against Fresno State in 1957. The Lions lost 92-90.

    - GO LIONS -
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