Dec. 22, 2015 SPOKANE, Wash. - LMU's three-game road swing to start West Coast Conference play in the final weeks of 2015 continues in the Pacific Northwest. The Lions will look to rebound in the toughest of places, taking on Gonzaga at the McCarthey Center on Wednesday, Dec. 23 at 6 pm. The game will be aired live on ROOT Sports Northwest and can be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
THE MATCH-UP
LMU opened WCC play at Portland for the first time since Jan. 16, 1985 on Monday and will now head to Spokane earlier than ever... Home teams dominated the opening day of WCC play. All four home teams won. The Lions saw Portland hit 14-of-33 three-pointers to start conference play with an 87-60 setback while Gonzaga cruised to a 99-73 win over Pepperdine... Forwards Kyle Wiltjer and Domantas Sabonis lead the Bulldogs with 19.7 and 17.8 ppg, respectively. Sabonis leads the league in rebounds with 127, averaging 10.6 per game... The pre-January date with the Bulldogs will be the first-ever in the month. This will be the 86th all-time meeting between LMU and Gonzaga and like many series in the WCC, Gonzaga has dominated the series, including 25 straight wins in Spokane. It isn't the longest in the WCC currently, San Francisco last won there in the 1988-89 season. The last win for the Lions in Spokane came on Feb. 7, 1991, 91-79. The current streak started with the Bulldogs winning in overtime in 1992, 97-95. The streak also looked to come to a close in the 2006 WCC Championship game on Mar. 6, 2006 but the Lions missed a lay-up in the final second as the Bulldogs earned the 68-67 win... The game will be aired on the WCC Regional Television Networks, which includes live on ROOT Northwest, ROOT Southwest, CSN California, and out of region online on TheW.tv and ESPN3.com.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
After winning six of their last eight heading into conference, the Lions had their first blip of the season with a struggle at Portland, not meeting their normal averages in everything but the turnover category. As of Dec. 21, the Lions still pace the conference in the ball handling categories. The Lions lead the WCC in turnover margin at +4.3. It was the one positive in the Portland result as the Lions had just nine turnovers, the second lowest of the season. They continue to lead the league in forcing turnovers at 16.3 per game and lead the league in steals at 8.2 per game, forcing eight on Monday... The Lions had been in the top-20 nationally in free throw shooting but went just 5-for-13 on Monday. They still lead the WCC at 72.5 percent... LMU was out-rebounded by Portland, 47-30 but matched the Pilots with 11 offensive rebounds. They still lead the league in offensive rebounds at 13.3 per game... Junior Brandon Brown is ranks fifth in the WCC with 5.9 assists per game, while sits 17th nationally in total assists with 71... Steven Haney is second in the WCC 2.82 three-pointers per game, 21st nationally in three-point attempts with 94 and 42nd in total three-pointers made with 34...
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 opened conference play with a rough 87-60 setback at Portland. They are 7-4 overall and 0-1 in the WCC. They had entered conference play winners in 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 of non-conference. He was 3-for-10 on Monday. Haney, a native of Lansing, Mich., is second in the WCC with 34 three-pointers, three shy of the Lions' top shooter from a year ago... The Lions are on stint of games with just two home games in a stretch of nine overall. 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 six of the 12 games, including Friday against JSU and Monday at Portland. 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 had also been distributing the ball of late as they get used to playing with each other. In the last eight games (6-2 record in that span) of non-conference, the Lions had averaged 17.3 assists per game. LMU had just nine assists Monday. They are still third in the WCC with a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio and are ranked third overall with 15.0 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 5.92 assists per game and has an assist to turnover ratio of 2.3. He ranks 12th in the WCC in scoring (13.7 per game), fifth in assists, sixth in steals (1.3 spg), seventh in free throw shooting (79.5%), seventh in assist to turnovers and second in the WCC in minutes at 34.5 mpg.
Ball handling has been a key for the Lions this season. The Lions finished with just 9 turnovers at Portland, the seventh game this season with less than a dozen. On the season, the Lions lead the WCC and rank 24th in the nation with a +4.3 turnover margin. The Lions force a league leading 16.3 turnovers while only turning the ball over 12.0 times per game, third in the WCC. The Lions' aggressive defense so far this season has equated to 195 points, scoring 11 against the Pilots.
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., hitting 7-for-20 on Monday.
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 is 16th in the WCC in scoring at 13.3 and 11th in rebounds at 5.8. He had four points and four rebounds on Monday, fouling out of his fifth game of the season, playing 16 minutes.
LMU entered WCC hitting 76.3 percent from the free throw line but went just 5-for-13 against Portland to fall to 72.5 percent heading into the Gonzaga game. They still lead the league, but 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 12.1 free throws made per game while opponents have made 18.1, a -6.0 difference. On the road this season it has been even greater as opponents are averaging just over nine 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 had three in the opener against the Titans and has 15 so far this season to move to third all-time with 108 blocks. The only four-year senior on the roster, he played in his 96th game against Portland.
