Jan. 18, 2012
The LMU men's basketball team will hit the road once again in West Coast Conference action, beginning a two-game road swing at BYU on Thursday, Jan. 19 for a 5:30 p.m. (PT) tip-off. The Lions will complete the season series with the Cougars before playing three others in conference play (Portland, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's). The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Prime Ticket and on BYUtv, as well as live on KXLU 88.9 FM.
| LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY: GAME: LMU (10-8, 3-2) vs. BYU (16-4, 5-1)
DATE/TIME: Jan. 19, 2011 // 5:30 p.m. (PST)
LOCATION: The Marriott Center Provo, UT
TV: FS Prime Ticket/BYUtv
RADIO: KXLU 88.9 FM (Jeff Lampe)
WEBCAST: BYUtv.org
LIVE STATS:
RESOURCES: |
INSIDE THE LIONS
LMU split a pair of games last week, improving to 3-0 on the road in WCC play with a 68-58 win over Pepperdine on Thursday and then falling to No. 21 Gonzaga, 62-58, on Saturday. The Lions have won three straight road games in conference play for the first time since the 1991-92 season and knock-off rival Pepperdine in Malibu for the first time since the 1997-98 season. The Lions are 10-8 overall and 3-2 in the WCC.
Drew Viney returned to the line-up on Dec. 27 against Vanguard and scored a game-high 29 points with eight rebounds. He had his 11th career double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the win over the Waves. He has played eight games on the season and is averaging 15.3 points per contest. Viney is one of four Lions in double figures for the season. Sophomore Anthony Ireland is fifth in the WCC with 14.9 points per game, going for 21 on 7-for-11 shooting Thursday. He is averaging 17 points in WCC games. Hamilton returned to the line-up against San Diego on Jan. 7 for the first time since injuring his foot on Nov. 19, going for 16 points and seven rebounds against the Toreros. In six games, he is averaging 14.3 points and 4.5 rebounds with 10 steals. Junior Jarred DuBois, who missed the weekend's action due to a concussion, averages 10.4.
The Lions are second in the WCC in free throw percentage, hitting 72.6 percent. The Lions' top-six scorers hit better than 74 percent, including LaRon Armstead's 87.5 percent, which is ranked second in the conference. He is 42-for-48 on the season after hitting all four attempts against Gonzaga. Jarred DuBois leads the team at 92.0 percent (23-for-25 - but doesn't qualify for WCC rankings). Drew Viney and Ashley Hamilton are hitting 81.1 and 78.1 percent from the line, with Hamilton going 7-for-10 in his return against San Diego.
LMU is tops in the league in three-point field goal defense, holding opponents to 30.3 percent from long range. The Lions have held nine teams under 30 percent for the game, including Gonzaga's 15.4 percent (2-for-13) on Saturday. In non-conference they held UCLA to 13.3 percent and North Texas' to 15.8 percent.
The Lions have played in three overtime games in a season for the first time since 2007-08, winning all three. It is the first time in program history the Lions have won three overtime games in a single season.
The Lions are 3-2 in their last five games against ranked opponents. They started the season with a 69-58 win over No. 17 UCLA and with the win over No. 22 Saint Louis, they defeated a ranked-opponent in consecutive chances for the first time since the 1989-90 NCAA Tournament. The Lions fell to No. 21 Gonzaga on Saturday, their third ranked opponent on the season. The most since the 2008-09 season when they played five.
THE ROSTER
Injuries once again have forced change in the Lions starting five as the Lions have started eight different line-ups and have played just one game with all 10 of the top-10 players available to play (Jan. 7 vs. San Diego). Junior Jarred DuBois missed the games against Pepperdine and Gonzaga after suffering a concussion against San Diego on Jan. 7. As for Tuesday, he will likely not make the trip to BYU on Thursday... Junior Ashley Hamilton, who was the Lions' leading scorer after three games, played 16 minutes against Harvard, scoring eight points before he left with a injury to his right foot. He missed 12 games before returning against San Diego on Jan. 7... Senior Drew Viney missed 10 of the Lions' first 12 games after a stress fracture in his foot the week prior to the start of the season in October. He returned to the line-up full-time with a 29-point, 8-rebound performance against Vanguard on Dec. 27... LMU's top-10 players missed a combined 66 games in 2010-11 as the Lions featured 16 different starting line-ups. They have missed a combined 27 games so far in 2011-12... Prior to the team's departure to San Francisco Dec. 31, redshirt sophomore Edgar Garibay asked for and was granted his release from the LMU men's basketball program. Garibay played 37 games in three season, earning a medical redshirt in his freshman season in 2009-10 after tearing his ACL.
GAME #18
After playing just three times in 75 years, LMU and BYU will complete their first WCC season series in 15 days. The overall series is now tied at 2-2 after BYU's 73-65 win at Gersten Pavilion on Jan. 5. The second meeting will match the Lions' road record, best in the WCC, with one of the best home court advantages in the 22,000-seat Marriott Center. BYU is 10-1 at home, losing just to No. 4 Baylor, 86-83, in front of 22,700. In the first meeting, Noah Hartsock led BYU with 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting and Brandon Davies added a double-double as the Cougars shot 53.8 percent in the second half to pull away late in a game that was tied at the break. The Lions shot just 34.3 percent for the game, including 31 percent in the second half. It was their second lowest effort on the season (Middle Tennessee - 33.3 percent) and lowest in WCC play. Anthony Ireland had 21 points while Drew Viney and Jarred DuBois added 13 each.
AT THE POINT
Sophomore Anthony Ireland started the season scoring 22 or more points in four of five games, while averaging 21 points per game in that stretch dating back to the Lions' finale against Santa Clara last season. His 26-point effort against Harvard was a career-high. He is one of two Lions to play every game this season and he is second in the WCC in minutes played at 36.1 per game, playing 79 of the 80 minutes last week. He enters the week ranked fifth in the WCC in scoring at 14.7 points per game after going for 21 against Pepperdine. He enters the BYU game third in assists in the WCC at 5.17 per game. He became just the second Lion since 1998 to earn a double-double with points and assists when he did it against Vanguard (14 pts, 10 assists). He had 21 assists in the final two non-conference games, going for a career-high 11 against Morgan State on Dec. 21. According to records, its is the most in back-to-back games since Terrell Lowery in 1990. He now has 188 career assists to rank 22nd all-time at LMU. He also entered the week ranked is fifth in the WCC with 1.56 steals per game.
SENIOR LEADER
Senior LaRon Armstead came off the bench to score 22 points against then #23 Saint Louis, becoming the Lions' senior leader and a mainstay in the Lions' rotation since. He went for double figures in six of seven games before the Morgan State game and went for 14 off the bench against No. 21 Gonzaga. He has now played in 93 games for the Lions in his career, scoring 562 points with 258 rebounds. He is fifth on the team with 8.7 points per game while adding 2.7 rebounds, and 10 steals. He is second in the WCC in free throws, hitting 42-for-48 (87.5 percent). He also has hit 19 three-pointers, one of six players on the team to hit on average more than one three-pointer per game.
CENTURY MARK
Redshirt senior Drew Viney entered 2011-12 needing just a single point to become the 31st player in LMU history to reach 1,000 career points. After having to miss the first six games due to a stress fracture in his foot, it took exactly 12 seconds in his first game back against Columbia to hit the century mark. Viney knocked down a 12-foot jumper to become the 31st player in school history to reach a 1,000 points. After missing three more games due to soreness in the foot, he returned to the line-up against Vanguard, scoring 29 points with eight rebounds. He went for 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th career double-double in the win over Pepperdine, which is ranked tied for 12th at LMU. He now has 1,121 points to rank 22nd all-time at LMU. He also has 449 rebounds and needs just five to crack the top-30 all time at LMU and 51 to become just the 13th player in LMU history to have 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds. He is also ranked seventh all-time with 69 blocks, earning five so far this season.
SHARP SHOOTER
Redshirt junior Jarred DuBois, who began play with the Lions in the same 2008-09 campaign with senior LaRon Armstead, played just five games a year ago due to foot surgery and was granted a medical redshirt. He has returned in a big way, averaging 10.4 points per game while entering the week ranked 13th in the WCC in assists (2.8 apg). He continues to climb the record books at LMU, entering the Pepperdine game he needs just 10 points to become the 32nd player in LMU history to reach a 1,000 points, sitting at 991 career points after scoring 10 Saturday. He is also ranked eighth all-time with 129 career three-pointers, fifth with a career free throw percentage of 84.2 percent and 18th with 209 career assists.
ALL-FRESHMAN
For the fifth straight season a freshman has earned a double-double, thanks to C.J. Blackwell going for 13 points and 11 rebounds against Idaho State on Dec. 10. Blackwell led the Lions with 19 points against USF, hitting 7-for-12 from the field and 4-for-7 from long range against USF. Blackwell continues a run of successful freshman at LMU. Blackwell is fifth on the team with 8.1 points per game and is hitting 76.7 percent from the charity stripe. He is second on the squad with 19 three-pointers. The Lions have had a member on the WCC All-Freshman team each of the last three seasons. Redshirt Jarred DuBois, who set a freshman scoring record at LMU in 2008-09 with 417 points, was the first in the `08-'09 campaign. In 2009-10, Hamilton was named All-Freshman after going for 8.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. The latest was Ireland, who finished with 340 points as a freshman in 2010-11 to rank seventh all-time at LMU.
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