Jan. 30, 2015
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LOS ANGELES - A four-game West Coast Conference homestand concludes Saturday as the LMU women's basketball team hosts Pacific at 2 p.m. in Gersten Pavilion.
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LMU vs. Pacific - Saturday, Jan. 31 @ 2:00 pm - Gersten Pavilion
| Live Stats | Watch on the LMU Sports Network
2014-15 Media Almanac | Game Notes
ABOUT THE PACIFIC TIGERS (15-6, 7-3 WCC)
Pacific has won two of its last three following a 63-59 victory at Pepperdine Thursday night in Malibu. The Tigers are now 15-6 overall and 7-3 in WCC place, good for a tie for fourth with San Diego. Despite averaging 7.3 points per game more than their opponents, the win over the Waves was their third straight victory by less than five points. Kendall Kenyon leads the squad by averaging a 13.9-point, 11.1-rebound double-double. Hailie Eackles is the only other Tiger in double figures, averaging 10.4 ppg. The Tigers shoot a solid 40 percent from the field, but allow opponents the same margin. They surrender a -4.6 rebounds per game average, but commit six fewer turnovers per game than the opposition.
SERIES HISTORY
Just four previous meetings exist between the Lions and Tigers as the teams met just once prior to becoming West Coast Conference rivals in 2013-14. Pacific holds a 3-1 edge in the series, including an 89-69 win in Stockton earlier this year. Emily Ben-Jumbo had a career-high 21 points and Taylor Anderson added 20, but it would not be enough to offset a 27-point, 14-rebound effort from Pacific's Kendall Kenyon and four total Tigers in double-figures. Last season, the teams split the home-and-home series with a pair of high scoring affairs. LMU won in Stockton, 90-84 while Pacific was victorious in Gersten Pavilion, 102-95.
LIONS LAST LINE
A valiant second-half comeback by the shorthanded LMU women's basketball team came up just short Thursday as the Lions fell 56-49 to Saint Mary's in Gersten Pavilion. Trailing 36-26 wit 15:44 remaining in the game, the Lions mounted a comeback, using a 12-2 run capped by back-to-back threes by Leslie Lopez-Wood and Sophie Taylor to knot the score at 38-38 with 10:07 remaining. Both teams would go cold for more than four minutes after that, but LMU would eventually break through first as Emily Ben-Jumbo powered her way to the basket for the 40-38 advantage with 5:34 to go. The Gaels would respond with a pair of foul shots by Hayley Hendricksen, but Lopez-Wood answered with another three for a 43-40 LMU lead. That would be the final lead for the Lions, however, as the Gaels scored five straight to move ahead 47-43 and would then hit 9-of-10 from the charity stripe down the stretch. Lopez-Wood finished with a game-high 21 points, including 5-of-7 from three. Makenzie Cast added eight points and Taylor chipped in seven for the Lions who shot 35 percent from the field. Saint Mary's shot just 33 percent from the field, but held a sizable advantage form the free-throw line, hitting 18-of-24 foul shots. LMU shot 6-of-10 from the charity stripe. Hendricksen led the Gaels with 16 points and Stella Beck added 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Gaels out rebounded the Lions 44-31, including collecting 20 offensive boards for 18 second chance points.
INSIDE THE LIONS
Through LMU's Jan. 29 game versus Saint Mary's, Leslie Lopez-Wood has drained 124 threes for her career, good for sixth in the LMU all-time record book. Sitting in fifth is Rachael Ziemann (2002-06) with 126. 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). To date, she has 56 on the season (2.7 per game).
On Dec. 29 at Pepperdine, Sophie Taylor missed her first free-throw attempt, but has been perfect ever since, hitting 24 straight. Her .960 (24-for-25) percentage in WCC play ranks second among all league players.
LMU hit a season-best 54.5 percent (30-for-55) from the field on Jan. 22 in their 82-57 win over Santa Clara. The Lions were especially hot in the opening frame, hitting 16-for-25 (64 percent), including closing out the half hitting seven straight from the field. Leslie Lopez-Wood led the way, shooting 9-for-10, including 5-for-6 from three, for a career-high 24 points.
Senior Taylor Anderson poured in a career-high 25 points on Jan. 10 versus San Diego, hitting 10-of-18 from the field and 5-of-7 from the free-throw line. That output was good for her third 20-plus point game of the season. She has also now scored in double figures 12 times through 21 games after reaching double-figures just nine times through her previous three seasons.
Junior guard Deanna Johnson suffered a season-ending knee injury on Dec. 20 in the final seconds of the Lions' game against Hawaii. Prior to her injury, Johnson had led the Lions in scoring five times and was averaging a team-best 13.2 ppg.
Emily Ben-Jumbo poured in a career-high 21 points at Pacific on Jan. 1, marking the first time the senior forward had surpassed the 20-point mark in her career. She hit 10-for-14 (71 percent) from the field and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe in the game.
LMU's 91 points at Pepperdine on Dec. 29 was a season high and marked the fifth time during Head Coach Charity Elliott's two-plus year tenure that the Lions have hit the 90-point mark. It had previously been a span of 13 seasons to achieve five 90-point games.
Leslie Lopez-Wood drained six threes at Pepperdine on Dec. 29. That marked the second time in her one-plus year career that she has hit six from deep, which is good for a tie for fourth in the LMU single-game record book. A trio of players have hit a school-record seven in a single game, most recently Monica DeAngelis versus Cal Poly on Dec. 19, 2011.
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 joined 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).
