Feb. 5, 2015 Final Stats
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SAN DIEGO - Often displaying a five-man lineup featuring four freshmen and one sophomore against a veteran San Diego squad, the LMU women's basketball team could not slow the Toreros in a 68-49 setback at Jenny Craig Pavilion Thursday night.
The Lions, who began the season with just four upperclassmen on the roster, have had that number sliced in half as key starters junior Deanna Johnson and senior Taylor Anderson both succumbed to season-ending knee injuries. The young Lions got a career-high 11 points from Olivia Lucero in just her fourth start of the year. Freshman Makenzie Cast added 11 points and sophomore Leslie Lopez-Wood chipped in 10.
San Diego (17-4, 8-3 WCC) had four players in double figures including Maya Hood with 18 and Katelyn McDaniel with 17 points and 11 boards. Sophia Ederaine finished one block shy of a triple-double, collecting 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks. Malina Hood rounded out the USD players in double figures with 10.
The Lions opened 1-for-12 from the field, finding themselves in a 19-3 hole just six-and-a-half minutes into the game. Trailing 25-6 with nine minutes to go in the opening frame, LMU would finally begin to find its mark. Leslie Lopez-Wood scored eight straight, including back-to-back threes, quickly making it 27-14.
A 6-0 run with buckets by Olivia Lucero, Makenzie Cast and Lopez-Wood cut the spread to 10, 30-20 with 4:44 on the clock. But a Sophie Taylor jumper with 4:08 to play would be LMU's final field goal of the half as San Diego pushed its lead back to 16 at the break, 43-27.
After hitting just 6-of-13 (46 percent) from the charity stripe in the first half, LMU continued to get to the line in the second, hitting 12-of-16 (75 percent) in the second frame. The Lions would get no closer than the halftime spread in the second half, making just 5-of-24 field goal attempts.
The Toreros were hot in the first half, shooting 47 percent from the field, including 4-of-9 from three. The cooled in the second, finishing at 38 percent for the game.
LMU is back in action Saturday afternoon, taking on BYU in Provo, Utah. Tip off is 2 p.m. MT, 1 p.m. Pacific.
