Dec. 20, 2015 PORTLAND, Ore. - West Coast Conference play will begin before Christmas for the first time in history as LMU will begin league play in the Pacific Northwest. The trip will first take the Lions to Portland to face the Pilots on Monday, Dec. 21 at 6 pm. The game will be aired live on the WCC regional television networks, originating through ROOT Sports and can be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
THE MATCH-UP
LMU will open WCC play at Portland for the first time since Jan. 16, 1985 when they take on the Pilots on Dec. 21. It will be the 95th all-time meeting between the conference rivals in a series that has been played nearly even. The Lions lead the series 48-46 with the teams splitting the series last season. The Pilots won the most recent meeting in Portland, 66-63 on Feb. 14, 2015. The first meeting in the series came in 1954 with the Lions winning 89-57... The match-up will feature strength vs. strength. Portland and LMU are the top two teams in the league in steals, turnover margin and offensive rebounds. Both teams average 8.2 steals per game, while LMU holds an edge in turnover margin +4.1 to +2.4 and an edge on the offensive glass at 13.5 to 12.8. The Pilots also lead the league in blocks per game at 4.5 per game. The Lions are fifth at 3.0... The game will be aired on the WCC Regional Television Networks, which includes live on ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain, ROOT Southwest, CSN California, out of region online on TheW.tv and ESPN3.com. Calling the game will be Tom Glasgow and Francis William.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
As of Dec. 18, LMU leads the West Coast Conference in free throw shooting, ranking 26th in the nation at 74.9 percent... The Lions also lead the WCC in turnover margin at +4.1, ranking 24th in the nation.. and 3rd in the WCC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.27...They lead the league and rank 31st in the nation forcing 16.36 turnovers per game, while ranking second in the WCC in steals per game and 44th nationally at 8.2 per game... the 90 total steals is 29th nationally... The Lions are ranked third in the WCC in assists with 15.5 per game... LMU also leads the league in offensive rebounds at 13.45 per game, 56th nationally... Junior Brandon Brown is 26th in the national at 6.1 apg, ranking fifth in the WCC, while sitting 17th nationally in total assists with 67... Steven Haney leads the WCC and is 62nd nationally with 2.82 three-pointers per game, 21st nationally in three-point attempts with 84 and 42nd in total three-pointers made with 31...
INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions remained at perfect at home (5-0) with a 77-60 win over Jacksonville State to close non-conference play on Dec. 18 at Gersten Pavilion. They improved to 7-4 overall on the season and have won six of their last eight... Steven Haney Jr. posted back-to-back 20-plus point games to close none conference. He led the Lions in the win over Cal State Fullerton, going for a career-best 26 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the three-point line. A quick look at the records, it is the most since Jeff Fryer's record 11 in the NCAA Tournament against Michigan. He then came back for 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting against JSU on Friday. He hit 3-of-5 from three, giving him 10-for-16 (.625) the last two games. Haney, a native of Lansing, Mich., leads the WCC with 2.9 three-pointers per game... The Lions are on a stretch with just two home games in a stretch of nine oveall. They will start conference with three straight on the road, giving them seven of nine games on the road... Heading into WCC play on Dec. 21, the Lions' four setbacks have come to teams with a record of 29-15.
The Lions feature a 15-man roster, and as the season began nine of them were not in an LMU uniform in 2014-15. With the new-look roster, the Lions will feature a full rotation, and entering WCC play, the Lions depth has been a factor. The Lions have played at least 10 players in every game this season except for last Saturday against CSUF, playing nine. The Lions have played all 12 scholarship players five of the 11 games, including Friday against JSU. The Lions had five players score in double figures in the first road win of the season at SEMO and then they had six go for double digits in the 77-76 win over UC Riverside. In the win over the Titans, the Lions bench was huge. They finished with 33 points from the bench, including a season-best 20 from Marin Mornar and a career-best 12 points from Petr Herman.
The Lions have also been distributing the ball of late as they get used to playing with each other. In the last seven games (6-2 record in that span), the Lions have averaged 17.3 assists per game. They are third in the WCC with a 1.27 assist-to-turnover ratio and are ranked third overall with 15.55 assists per contest. They had 21 against the Titans, the most against an NCAA Division I team this season. Junior Brandon Brown has been the point-man for the Lions this season. He leads the Lions with 6.09 assists per game and has an assist to turnover ratio of 2.55. He ranks 14th in the WCC in scoring (12.9 per game), fourth in assists, seventh in steals (1.4 spg), ninth in free throw shooting (78.4%), sixth in assist to turnovers and second in the WCC in minutes at 34.6 mpg.
Ball handling has been a key for the Lions this season. The Lions finished with just 11 turnovers at Cal State Fullerton, the sixth game this season with less than a dozen. On the season, the Lions lead the WCC and rank 24th in the nation with a +4.41 turnover margin. The Lions force a league leading 16.36 turnovers while only turning the ball over 12.27 times per game, second in the WCC. The Lions' aggressive defense so far this season has equated to 184 points, scoring 22 against the Titans.
The Lions finished the win at SEMO 10-for-31 from three, 8-for-26 against Oregon State, and then 9-for-22 against UC Riverside, giving them six straight games with eight or more three-pointers. That streak was snapped against Boise State, hitting 7-for-20. It is the longest streak of eight or more since the Lions went seven straight games in the 1997-98 season. They bounced back thanks to Steven Haney's seven three-pointers, finishing with 10 as a team. The Lions are fourth in the WCC with 7.8 three-pointers per game.
Sophomore Joshua Spiers erupted for a career-best 24 points, hitting 6-of-10 three-pointers, to lead the Lions in overtime against CSUN. His six three-pointers against CSUN on Nov. 25 was tied for the most in the last 20 years. That lasted less than a month as Haney hit those seven against CSUF. Junior Matt Hayes hit six three-pointers a year ago against Santa Clara (Feb. 21, 2015), going for his career-best 20. Adoyah Miller also hit six three pointers in a double-overtime win against Boise State on Dec. 19, 2006. As a freshman, Spiers had 25 points and six three-pointers for the season.
Adom Jacko's 22 points and 10 rebound effort in the opener is the first double-double by an LMU player in his first game as a Lion against an NCAA Division I program in 35 years. Senior Marin Mornar had 13 and 11 against Pacifica on Nov. 9, 2012. In addition, the 22 points were the most by a Lions' player in his first game since Larry Davis had 22 against Boise State on Nov. 13, 2009. Brandon Worthy had a 24-point effort against Loyola Chicago on Nov. 22, 2002 for the best scoring game by a Lion his first collegiate game (freshman). Jacko added his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds against Boise State, and then a third with his 21 points and 11 rebounds against Jacksonville State. He leads the Lions in scoring at 14.1 ppg, ranking 13th in the WCC. He is ninth in the league in rebounds at 5.9 per game and 12th in field goal percentage at 51.2 percent.
LMU is hitting 76.3 percent from the free throw line, a good four percent better than the next best team in the WCC. However, they haven't been able to feature it much. The Lions managed just two free throw attempts at Oregon State, missing both attempts on the front-end of one-and-ones. The Beavers went 15-for-18. Looking back 50 years, it appears this is the second time the Lions have gone with out a free throw made in program history. The other came on Nov 26, 1982 when the Lions went 0-for-1 against Idaho at the Fresno State Tournament. Free throw difference has been a factor for the Lions. They are averaging 12.7 free throws made per game while opponents have made 18.7, a -5.0 difference. On the road this season it has been even greater as opponents are averaging just over 10 more free throws made than the Lions.
Senior Marin Mornar was second in the WCC in blocks a year ago, finishing with 47 as a junior to rank 5th all-time for blocks in a season. He is back at it to start his senior season. He had three in the opener against the Titans and has 14 so far this season to move to third all-time with 107 blocks. The only four-year senior on the roster, he played in his 95th game against Jacksonville St.
