Feb. 12, 2010

Game Notes in Printable PDF Format

Interactive Game Notes with Audio:

The Lions enter the final game of their Bay Area road trip winners of back-to-back conference games and three of their last four to move themselves a half a game out of fourth place in the West Coast Conference standings and a first round bye in the upcoming Zappos.com WCC Men's Basketball Championships in Las Vegas. The Lions trail San Francisco, who have also won three of four including an overtime home win over Gonzaga. Up next for the Lions: the Dons on Saturday, Feb. 13, to end their two game road swing. Game time is 7 p.m., and it can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM and LMULions.com.

INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions, who do not feature a senior on the roster and are starting four sophomores and a junior, already have surpassed their win total of the last two seasons combined, have matched 2007 for the most wins since 2003, and have doubled their conference win total from a year ago. The Lions enter the USF game at 13-12 overall and 4-5 in the WCC. The Lions' roster is ranked 300 out of 343 NCAA Division-I teams in terms of experience but still managed to have their longest win streak since the 1995-96 season (6 games), the most non-conference wins since that season (9), posted a three-game road winning streak for the first time since they won their last road game of 1994-95 and first two road games of the 95-96 campaign, snapped a 24-game road skid with a win at USC, and snapped a 20-game WCC road skid with a win at Santa Clara. They hadn't won three straight road games in one season since 1991-92. The Lions enter the game against San Francisco averaging 76.0 points per game, which is the most by a Lions' squad since they averaged 79.0 on the 1993-94 team. The 1998-99 team averaged 75.9. In addition, two of the Lions' wins this season have come on the road against teams from the "Power 6" conferences (Nov. 21 at USC, 67-59; Dec. 12 at Notre Dame, 87-85).

SEEING DOUBLES
Thanks to Kevin Young's 19.2-point average over the past four games, the Lions now have five players averaging double figures, led by sophomore Drew Viney, who leads the team in scoring at 17.2 points per contest and rebounds at 7.0 per contest. The first-year player who transferred from Oregon in 2008, has three double-doubles this season, has averaged 23.3 points the last three games and has 20 or more points in four of the last five games. He is ranked fourth in the WCC in scoring and fifth in rebounds. Vernon Teel is second on the team at 14.4 points per game, going for a career-best 27 against Gonzaga. Teel has been the spark plug for the Lions, earning a pair of WCC Player of the Week honors and December Player of the Month honors. He enters the game against Pepperdine ranked 8th in the nation (as of Feb. 7) and first in the WCC in assists at 6.20 per game. He has been flirting with triple-doubles this season and also averages 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals. Sophomore Jarred DuBois returned to the Lions line-up against Pepperdine and put in 15 points to raise his average to 12.9 on the season and is second for the Lions with 44 three-pointers, hitting at a 40.7 percent clip. He enters the San Francisco game ranked 15th in the WCC in scoring and 6th in three-pointers made with 2.1. As for Young, he is now averaging 11.1 points (20th in WCC) and 5.5 rebounds (12th) per game. Junior Larry Davis is fifth on the team with 10.4 points per contest.

INJURY UPDATE
The busiest man on the LMU roster has been head trainer Keith Ellison. The Lions featured their 10th different starting line-up against San Diego. Here is why: Ashley Hamilton suffered a MCL tear in his right knee at the start of the second half of the Portland game and missed three games. He returned in the second game against Pepperdine and played 18 minutes. Jarred DuBois, who had played every game of his young career, missed four games due to dehydration. He spent Wednesday, Jan. 20, in a Portland hospital taking fluids and did not return until earning the start against Pepperdine Feb. 6, scoring 15 points in 33 minutes. Junior Larry Davis has played just 13 games on the year after having surgery on his Achilles Tendon in the off season. He has not played since Jan. 21 (Portland) and continues to deal with pain in that foot from a stress reaction and is out two-four weeks. Freshman Given Kalipinde missed six games with an ankle sprain and returned against USF. He sprained the same right ankle against Pepperdine Saturday and played just nine minutes. He did not play against Santa Clara but was in uniform. It all started with freshmen Edgar Garibay and Quincy Lawson, who will miss the rest of the 2009-10 season due to injuries. Garibay will miss the season after tearing his left ACL in the game against UC Santa Barbara. He had started four games and was averaging 7.4 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds per contest. Lawson will have surgery to his left hip after injuring it during the opening weekend. Both will apply for medical redshirts following the conclusion of this season.

SO CLOSE
The 2009-10 season is not one for the faint of heart. The Lions have had 15 of their 25 games decided by less than 10 points and they are 7-8 in those games, 2-2 in WCC play, after defeating Santa Clara by six, 73-67, on Thursday. Seven of the Lions' 12 setbacks have come by six points or less, and combined are at an average of four points per game. In all seven of those games, the Lions were tied or held a lead with under three minutes to play.

2009-10 QUICK HITTERS
• The Lions improved to 10-1 on the season when they outscore their opponents in points off turnovers. In the 16-point win over Pepperdine, the Lions outscored the Waves 20-2 in points off turnovers, and then outscored Santa Clara 20-10 on turnovers. Offense from their defense has been key all season as they held Pepperdine to 61 points on 35 percent shooting, all season lows in conference play, and then held Santa Clara to 67 points on 35.5 percent shooting. The defense also has the Lions among the top in the WCC in terms of defense. The Lions had 16 steals in the win over North Dakota. They did one better against AAU, collecting 17. That total equals the most steals in a single game since they had 17 in an 83-79 overtime loss to Portland on Feb. 16, 2002. They have 189 through 25 games after swipping 12 against SCU this season, an average of 7.56 per game, which is tops in the WCC. At the same point last year, they had 146 steals. The Lions are also second in the WCC in blocks with 4.4 per game (111 total). They had 55 all of last year.
• The Lions set the tone for their scoring right out of the gates in the first two games of the season, going for more than 80 points in consecutive games for the first time since the 2005-06 season. In the final game of the decade, they scored 104 against Seattle, cracking the century mark for the first time since Jan. 29, 1998. The Lions have now had a 100-point game in every decade since the 1940s, a decade in which they missed three seasons due to World War II. The Lions have 11 80-plus games on the season, six more than the total of the previous three seasons combined. The Lions are averaging 20.3 more points than a year ago, putting in 76.0 points per game this season, after averaging just 55.7 a year ago. The Lions are third in the WCC in scoring and 47th out of 334 schools nationally (Jan. 31). The Lions had just one game of 70 or more points a year ago, after 25 games this season they have 17.
• The Lions finished the game against Seattle attempting just seven three-pointers, hitting four of them (57.1 percent). But they dominated in the paint and finished the game shooting 59.3 percent (32-for-54) from the field. Since 1998, it matches the third highest shooting percentage since going 32-for-54 against Vanguard on Nov. 17, 2000. They shot 62.3 percent in a win over Texas A&M on Dec. 2, 2001 and 60.9 percent in a 74-71 win over Santa Clara on Jan. 27, 2007. On the season they are shooting 45.6 percent from the field, which is fourth in the WCC, and 38.8 percent from long distance, which is third in the WCC and 28th nationally (as of Feb. 7).