Nov. 19, 2014 BUY TICKETS | This is LMU Basketball | We Are LMU... | LMU on Facebook | LMU on Twitter
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The LMU men's basketball team will hit the road for the first time in 2014-15 and it will take them to the first of three Pac-12 opponents. The Lions (1-1) head to Arizona State (2-0)on Thursday, Nov. 20 to take on the Sun Devils at Wells Fargo Arena at 6 pm (PT)/7 pm (MT). It is the 22nd all-time meeting, but the first since 1980 when Head Coach Mike Dunlap was playing for the Lions. The game can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM and can be watched live on the Pac-12 Network.
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INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions opened the season with a split at their own LMU Classic on the first weekend of the 2014-15 season. The Lions opened the Mike Dunlap era with a 76-66 win over SE Missouri State, shooting 52.8 percent from the field and outrebounding the Redhawks 41-29. They then fell to Boise State in the final game of the Classic, 77-69. The Lions once again out-rebounded their opponent, and leading by a pair with four minutes to play saw Boise State go on a 12-0 run to take the win.
Senior Leadership: The Lions, with 11 newcomers on the roster, will lean heavily on an experienced trio of seniors. Both Godwin Okonji and Ayodeji Egbeyemi are coming off medical redshirt seasons and will play their fifth season in 2014-15. The two have played in 98 and 93 games, respectively, at LMU. Both were expected to be mainstays in the starting line-up a year ago and enter the game with a combined 135 starts among them. Joining them is senior Chase Flint. He, along with Egbeyemi, have already earned their Bachelor degrees and both are in master programs at LMU. Egbeyemi is the MBA program while Flint is in the Elementary Education program. Flint has played in 44 games at LMU after coming from Eastern Utah College in 2012.
Three players return from last year's roster that saw action for the length of the season. The senior Flint along with junior Marin Mornar and sophomore Even Payne. Mornar ranked 10th in LMU program history with 36 blocks last season, and with two more to start 2014-15, he now has 48 in his career, which is ranked tied for 21st all-time. Mornar has played in 54 games as a Lion and averaged 2.8 points and 2.9 rebounds a year ago. He ranked sixth in the WCC last year at 1.1 blocks per contest. As for Payne, he set the LMU freshman record a year ago with 497 points in playing every game. His 15.5 points a year ago - an LMU freshman record - ranked seventh in the WCC.
After going nearly two years without game action due to taking a medical redshirt, fifth-year senior Godwin Okonji returned in a big way. The forward from Nigeria had his second career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, adding three assists and a steal against Boise State. He has played in 97 games as a Lion and has become one of the senior captains this season. He went 6-for-11 from the field against the Broncos and five of his 10 rebounds were offensive. He also added a block to his resume in the season opening win over SE Missouri State on Friday, giving him 89 in his career. The total is fifth all-time in LMU history, three behind Ime Oduok's 92.
Big Returns: While 11 players are new to the Lions' roster this season, two more returning players had big impacts in the opening weekend. Junior Marin Mornar had his best two game stretch as a Lion, averaging 11.5 points per contest on 10-for-14 shooting (71.4 percent) in earning two starts. He went 5-for-7 from the field in both games, going for 10 points, four reobunds an assist and a block against SEMO. He then equalled a career-high with 13 points, three rebounds, a block and a steal against Boise State in 31 minutes. The Lions scored 73 points from bench players in the two opening games, primarily due to efficient work by sophomore Evan Payne. He continued where he left off from his freshman record 497 points a year ago by scoring 23 points in just 23 minutes in the win over SEMO. He then adding 22 points in 31 minutes on Saturday. He finished the two games shooting 14-for-26 from the field (53.8 percent), 5-for-10 from three and 12-for-15 from the free throw line (80 percent). He also led the Lions in assists with 3.0 apg, getting five agaisnt Boise State. It was his seventh and eighth game with 20 or more points in his career. He is the first player to score 22 or more in the first two games of the season since Jeff Fryer did it in November of 1989 with 23 against UNLV and 26 against Nevada.
The Lions opened a new campaign with a win for the fourth straight season and will look to earn a win in its first road game of a new season for the third time in four years. They won last year at Long Beach State, 74-73, and in 2011-12 when they defeated No. 17 UCLA, 69-58. They fell at SMU to start the 2012 season, 73-58. The Lions are 14-36 in the first road game of the season since 1959-60. They played Arizona State in the first road game of the 1970-71 season, falling 87-78 on Dec. 4, 1970.
BENCH AND POST PRODUCTION: During the last 20 games of last season, the Lions averaged just 12.15 bench points per game and in the last six they averaged just 5.6. In the opening weekend, they scored 73 bench points to 36 by their two opponents. They outscored SEMO 43-6 thanks to 23 points from Evan Payne and 13 from Matt Hayes. The duo hit 5-for-8 from the three-point line in the win... LMU shot 52.8 percent from the field in the win and finished hitting 49.5 percent on the weekend. A big reason was a huge boost in the post production. The Lions' four bigs (Okonji, Monar, Petr Herman and Patson Siame) hit 58.6 percent from the field, including Mornar's 71.4 percent and Siame's 62.5 percent (5-for-8). The bigs hit 24-for-41, an average of 12 makes on 20.5 shots per contest. Last year, the Lions' hit 48.1 percent from their four post players, averaging 9.2 makes on 19.2 attempts per game last year.
While Thursday's match-up against Arizona State will be the 22nd between the two programs, it is an older series that dates back to 1937 and one that has not seen the court since Head Coach Mike Dunlap was a player on the 1980 team that went to the NCAA tournament, fell to Arizona State then had to forfeit most of the season due to an ineligibile player. Arizona State leads the series 12-9. The Sun Devils have never played in Gersten Pavilion and were on the LMU campus when it was still just Loyola. The Lions are 4-0 at home against Arizona State, with the four wins coming in 1948, 1949, 1952 and 1966. The last time the Lions were in Tempe was in 1976 when the Lions fell 93-63.
The meeting against Arizona State on Thursday will be the 130th all-time meeting between LMU and a member of the Pac-10. With Colorado and Utah added to the mix to make the Pac-12 in 2011, this will be the 156th meeting against the current members of the conference. The Lions have faced USC the most, playing them 55 times, including a 67-59 win at the Galen Center on Nov. 21, 2009 in the team's last meeting. The last meeting against a member of the Pac-12 came in the first game of the 2011-12 season as the Lions earned a 69-58 win over No. 17 UCLA at the LA Sports Arena.
On March 12, 2014, Mike Dunlap returned home, coming back to his alma mater as the 26th head coach of the LMU men's basketball program. In less than four months, the Lions had a new roster that included seven newcomers, just three players that played more than seven games together, 13 players from eight different countries and a coaching staff with over 70 years of combined head coaching experience at every level of basketball. He became the 13th coach at LMU to win in his season debut, claiming the 76-66 win over SE Missouri St.
To get a jump start on the 2014-15 season, Dunlap and the Lions found a way to organize a 12-day training trip to Spain. The trip included a grueling training schedule before and during the trip, three games against local all-star teams and a fourth against the Angola National Team, who was training for the World Cup later that month. The result has the Lions coming together heading into the new season. With four walk-ons joining the roster in September, the Lions have 11 of 17 players who were not in LMU uniforms a year ago. An additional three - Ayodeji Egbeyemi, Godwin Okonji and Patson Siame - sat out a year ago, giving them 14 of 17 players that did not see action a year ago (Egbeyemi played eight games before serving medical redshirt year). With youth everywhere on the roster, the Lions will lean on fifth-year seniors Egbeyemi, Okonji and Chase Flint to lead them on the mission of coming together each day throughout the 2014-15 season under the experienced staff led by one of LMU's own in Dunlap.
The international roster includes Australia (Joshua Spiers, David Humphries), Slovakia (Simon Krajcovic), Czech Republic (Petr Herman), Zambia (Patson Siame), Nigeria (Godwin Okonji, Ayodeji Egbeyemi) and Croatia (Marin Mornar). The LMU Sports Network took a look at the vast differences of the Lions' roster through language.
For the fourth time in seven years the Lions opened the season playing in a tournament, the first time at home. The Lions are 37-21 in season openers since they joined the West Coast Conference in 1955-56. They opened 2008 in the BTI Invitational at Iowa State, the 2009 season was started at Montana's Grizzly Classic and 2013 was started at this same tournament hosted by San Diego. LMU will play in a pair of non-conference tournaments this season, making it 14 straight years the Lions have made an apperance in a regular season tournament. LMU will also play in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Dec. 22-25. Mike Dunlap is 9-6 all-time in openers as a college coach.
