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LOS ANGELES -- While the LMU men's basketball makes multiple trips a year to the Bay Area for West Coast Conference play, their next non-conference opponent is a rare one. For just the sixth time in program history and the first since the 1984-85 season, LMU men's basketball will travel to face Stanford on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 6 pm. The game can be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions' record sits at 3-5 overall after falling to Northern Arizona on Saturday, 71-69. The Lions outshot the Lumberjacks from the field, from the three-point line and from the charity stripe. They also outrebounded NAU and got a career-best 32 points from sophomore Evan Payne. However, it wasn't enough to overcome a 14-5 deficit in points off turnovers as NAU used 16 LMU turnovers to their eight to generate 16 more shots from the field.
This will be just the sixth meeting all-time between LMU and Stanford, tied for the second fewest among the 23 NCAA Division I institutions in the state of California. LMU has played UC Davis just once and Cal six times. Stanford has won all five of the previous meetings, all coming in Stanford. The last meeting was on Dec. 21, 1984. The teams started the series in 1952, playing twice that season. They played again in 1953 and then not again for 28 years, playing on Dec. 10, 1981. Here is a look at the all-time match-ups against California institutions:
| Pepperdine | 160 | Pacific | 50 | Cal Poly | 10 |
| San Francisco | 148 | San Jose St. | 43 | CSU Bakersfield | 10 |
| Santa Clara | 142 | Long Beach St. | 27 | UC Riverside | 8 |
| Saint Mary's | 135 | Cal State Fullerton | 24 | Sacramento State | 7 |
| San Diego | 88 | UC Irvine | 22 | California | 6 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 87 | UCLA | 18 | Stanford | 5 |
| San Diego State | 59 | CSU Northridge | 18 | UC Davis | 1 |
| USC | 56 | Fresno State | 15 | | |
THE LIONS REAL QUICK... Sophomore Evan Payne is second in the West Coast Conference (as of Dec. 14) at 22.6 points per contest, ranking 7th nationally. He has led the Lions in all eight games this season, and he had his 12th career 20-point game with a career-best 32 against NAU, giving him six 20-point games in the eight games played so far in 2014-15. He was 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... freshman Simon Krajcovic came off the bench to score a career-best 12 points and post the most assists by a freshman since 2002 with nine against UC Irvine on Nov. 29. He had no turnovers and did it in 18 minutes, adding four rebounds and two steals to go with 5-for-8 shooting. He was the only other Lion to lead the team in scoring, tying Payne with nine points at Arizona State. He is ranked 7th in the WCC in assists with 4.2 apg... The Lions have 38 blocks as a team, earning seven against USC and five against NAU. They are averaging 4.8 per game, tops in the WCC and 72nd nationally. Three Lions are in the top-10 within the WCC. Junior Marin Mornar equalled a career-high with five blocks against UC Riverside. He has 16 on the season and is averaging 2.0 per game, ranking second in the WCC. Patson Siame is ranked at fourth, averaging 1.1 per game, while Ayodeji Egbeyemi is eighth with 0.8 bpg... Mornar now has 62 blocks in his career, good for 14th all-time. Senior Godwin Okonji had a block against NAU, and he now has 90 in his career, ranking 5th all-time... Siame is also in the top-10 in field goal percentage within the WCC, ranking 10th at 53.2percent. He had his first double-digit rebounding performance with 10 against the Anteaters... The Lions 52.8 percent shooting in the opener was the best since hitting 55.4 percent against Northern Arizona on Nov. 17, 2013 and the 28.1 percent against ASU was the lowest since hitting 25 percent against seventh-ranked Gonzaga on Jan. 31, 2013... Okonji had his second career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds against Boise State. He has played in 104 career games, while fellow senior Ayodeji Egbeyemi will play in his 100th game against Stanford.
QUICK LOOK AT STANFORD... Anthony Brown came off the bench to score 17 points, leading Stanford to a come-from-behind 49-43 victory over Denver on Dec. 13. Stefan Nastic and Chasson Randle scored all nine points during a run in the final 3:28 to put Stanford (5-2) ahead to stay. The Cardinal survived its worst shooting game of the season as Randle, who was 5-5 from the foul line, and Nastic combined for a 6-24 effort from the floor...The Cardinal's 17 first-half points were its fewest in any half since a 25-16 halftime deficit to Tulsa on Nov. 26, 2010... Chasson Randle (5-5 FT) has now made 36 consecutive free throws (32-32 this season) dating back to Stanford's NCAA Sweet 16 game against Dayton last March. Ryan Mendez owns the school record at 49, followed by Todd Lichti (41) and Arthur Lee (38) ... Stanford was held under 50 points for the first time since a 56-43 loss to Arizona on Feb. 4, 2012 ... Stanford won a game despite scoring under 50 points for the first time since a 39-37 victory over Washington State on Feb. 25, 2006 ... Stanford committed only seven turnovers and entered the game with the sixth-fewest miscues (70) in the country ... Chasson Randle scored nine points on 2-14 shooting, the first time he has been held to single digits since totaling six points on 2-6 shooting against Washington State last January ... Stefan Nastic recorded a career-high four blocks ... Marcus Allen made his first collegiate start, earning the nod in place of Anthony Brown ... Stanford was 17-23 from the foul line compared to Denver's 2-3 clip.
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 are in their fifth season in 2014-15. The two have played in 104 and 99 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 144 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. All three have made an impact in the first five games. Flint ranks 11th in the WCC with 1.3 steals per game, leading the Lions with 10 on the season. Egbeyemi has had four double-digit scoring games this season and has led the Lions at the charity stripe, ranking 11th in the WCC at 80.0 percent (24-for-30). He also ranks 8th in the league in blocks. As for Okonji, he leads the Lions with 6.3 rebounds per contest, ranking 11th in the WCC. His 22 offensive rebounds is 6th in the WCC, grabbing six against USC to give him seven points and seven rebounds against the Trojans on the night. He also added a block to his resume against NAU, giving him 90 in his career. The total is fifth all-time in LMU history, three behind Ime Oduok's 92.
The other two returning players from the Lions' roster last year are having a big impact, as mentioned earlier. Sophomore Evan Payne has put up the points, running his career total to 678 in 37 games (17.0 ppg in his career). His 22.6 ppg trails only BYU's Tyler Haws (23.8 ppg) in the WCC. He is also 13th in free throw percentage, hitting 49-for-62 (79.0 percent) and 9th in three-pointers made at 2.0. Junior Marin Mornar has also been improving on his career numbers. He leads the Lions with 53.8 percent shooting from the field, scoring 7.3 points per game. He has a block in seven of the Lions' eight games and has 14 in the last five to sit second in the WCC with 16.
THE NEWCOMERS: With so many new faces, the Lions will rely on its youth to step-up throughout the season. And they have. Here is a look at some of the highlights from newcomers through six games... Sophomore Matt Hayes, a transfer from Santa Rosa JC, is second on the team with 13 three-pointers, hitting 40.6 percent on the season. He is second on the team in scoring at 8.5 ppg and ranks sixth within the WCC in three-pointers per game... Patson Siame, in his first season after a year off to establish residency in 2013-14, is fourth in the WCC in blocks with nine, adding 6.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest. He had nine points and 10 rebounds Nov. 29 against UC Irvine and then played a career-best 32 minutes against USC, going for six points, seven rebounds and two blocks... Freshman Simon Krajcovic did not play the first two games, but in game three came off the bench to lead the Lions with nine points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals against Arizona State. Against UCI, he had 12 points with nine assists, no turnovers, four rebounds and two steals in just 18 minutes. It was the most assists by a freshman since Wes Wardrop had nine his rookie season in 2002. Krajcovic leads the Lions with 4.17 assists per contest, dishing out 25 in five games. He ranks 7th in the WCC.
BENCH POINTS: The Lions scored 73 points from bench players in the two opening games, primarily due to efficient work by sophomore Evan Payne. The Lions continue to show added depth eight games through the season, scoring a season-high 51 points off the bench against NAU - thanks mainly to Payne's career-high 32 on Saturday. Through eight games, they have scored 241 points off the bench (30.1 ppg). In the final nine games of the season in 2013-14, the bench combined to sore 65 points.
