Dec. 28, 2014 BUY TICKETS | Complete 2014-15 Schedule | Inside LMU Women's Basketball | LMU on Facebook |
LOS ANGELES - West Coast Conference play gets underway for the LMU women's basketball team as the Lions make the short trip up the PCH to take on Wells Fargo PCH Cup rival Pepperdine on Monday, Dec. 29. Tip off from Firestone Fieldhouse is set for 1 p.m.
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LMU at Pepperdine - Monday, Dec. 29 @ 1:00 pm - Firestone Fieldhouse
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2014-15 Media Almanac | Game Notes
PCH CUP UPDATE
Entering Monday's women's basketball match-up at Pepperdine, the Lions lead the Waves 6-1 in the 2014-15 Cup standings. This will mark the seventh meeting of the season between the two schools while the eighth meeting will take place at 6 p.m. Monday night as the two men's basketball teams do battle to open WCC play in Gersten Pavilion.
ABOUT THE PEPPERDINE WAVES (5-6, 0-0 WCC)
The Waves concluded non-conference action with a 5-6 mark, including winning two of their final three games. Pepperdine went 4-3 on the road, 1-0 at neutral sites and 0-3 in their own Firestone Fieldhouse. A trio of Waves average double figures including Bria Richardson (13.1 ppg), Keitra Wallace (13.1 ppg) and Allie Green (11.1 ppg). As a team, Pepperdine averages 61.2 ppg on 38 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 percent from three. They have been outrebounded by an average of 6.1 boards per game and average 16.4 turnovers per outing. Recent wins came on the road against UC Santa Barbara (66-63) and Northern Arizona (66-63) before closing out non-conference action with a 62-36 setback to Albany at home.
WHEN LAST WE MET
This will mark the 71st all-time meeting between LMU and Pepperdine. The Waves hold a sizeable advantage in the series, 50-20, but LMU has turned the table as of late, sweeping the home-and-home series the past two seasons under third-year Head Coach Charity Elliott. Last year, a 76-64 win at Pepperdine marked LMU's first WCC win of the year and started a run that saw the Lions win four of six, a streak that was capped by a second victory over the Waves. Sophie Taylor poured in a career-high 27 points in the first win while Leslie Lopez-Wood led the Lions with a then career-high 18 in the second win to complete the season sweep.
LIONS LAST LINE
LMU closed out the non-conference portion of its 2014-15 schedule Dec. 22 against Washington State, falling 87-60 in Gersten Pavilion. Emily Ben-Jumbo had a team-high 13 points for the Lions (2-9) while Leslie Lopez-Wood had 12 and Taylor Anderson added 10. Lopez-Wood also had a team-high eight boards while Ben-Jumbo led the way with four assists. The Lions were without the services of junior guard Deanna Johnson, who suffered a leg injury in the final minute of Saturday's game versus Hawaii. Washington State (9-2) was led by Tia Presley and Lia Galdeira who had 16 and 15 points, respectively. The Cougars shot 44 percent front he field and 46 percent from three, hitting 12-of-26 from long distance. LMU got off to a solid start against the Cougars, who entered last week receiving votes in both the AP and USA Today/Coaches polls. The teams traded buckets early and a Ben-Jumbo layup at 17:05 gee the Lions a 9-7 advantage. Washington State would slowly pull away midway through the half, using a 9-0 run midway through to open up a 23-13 advantage and eventually carry a 41-27 lead into the break. LMU would get no closer than 14 in the second half as they finished the game shooting 34 percent from the field and 26 percent from three. The Lions also committed 24 turnovers in the game, resulting in 30 points for the Cougars.
INSIDE THE LIONS
Senior Taylor Anderson poured in a career-high 21 points on Dec. 20 versus Hawaii, hitting 8-of-13 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line. That marks the second time this season that the La Verne, Calif., native has set a career-high. She has also scored in double figures six times through 10 games after reaching double-figures just nine times through her previous three seasons. After missing her first free-throw attempt of the season on Nov. 14 at Oklahoma State, Leslie Lopez-Wood has gone a perfect 18-for-18 from the charity stripe. Senior Emily Ben-Jumbo collected her third double-double of the year on Saturday versus Hawaii, bringing her career total to five. Fellow senior Taylor Anderson ranks second on the team with two double-doubles this season. Deanna Johnson has led LMU in scoring five times this season, surpassing the 20-point mark in three of them. The junior guard had six games of 20 points or more last season and now has 11 for her career. LMU won its own Thanksgiving Classic for the sixth time in its 17-year history. This marked the first Classic title for LMU since 2008. The Lions also won in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2007. Leslie Lopez-Wood joins the likes of Adrienne Slaughter (2001), Kate Murray (2002), Amanda DeCloud (2007) and Renahy Young (2008) as LMU's Thanksgiving Classic MVPs. LMU's come-from-behind win over Bowling Green (Nov. 29) was the first time the Lions had trailed at halftime and won since a 76-74 overtime victory over Saint Mary's on Feb. 13, 2014 - a stretch of 11 games. The Lions trailed at halftime 17 times in 2013-14, winning just one of those contests (SMC). Leslie Lopez-Wood has 27 threes through 11 games this season. The sophomore set the LMU single-season record for threes last year, finishing her rookie campaign with 70 (an average of 2.3 per game). She now has 97 in one-plus seasons and is just two threes shy of entering the LMU career top-10 list. Deanna Johnson went 0-for-8 at NAU (Dec. 3), going scoreless for the first time since Nov. 20, 2013 versus Montana - a streak of 27 games. The junior guard finished without a point for just the third time in her 63 career LMU games.
