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LOS ANGELES - LMU men's basketball returns to Gersten Pavilion for Homecoming Week 2016 after it's first true Bay Area road sweep in 24 seasons. It will be a tough return as the streaking Lions (9-9, 2-5) welcome one of those sitting near the top of the West Coast Conference, BYU (13-6, 4-2). The Lions start homecoming week with the Cougars on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 8 pm. The game will be broadcast by BYUtv and will also be Time Warner Cable SportsNet. The game can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
THE MATCH-UP
The youngest of the conference match-ups, this will be the 13th match-up for the Lions against BYU. The Cougars have won the last four meetings and lead the series 8-4. The game will be the first of LMU's 2016 Homecoming Week with the annual Homecoming Game coming on Saturday against San Diego at 3 pm. The official radio home of the Lions, KXLU 88.9 FM, is the official partner of the game against the Cougars and will offer a Koozie student giveaway as part of Homecoming Week. The travel partner series between LMU-Pepperdine and BYU-San Diego will get settled in the next two weeks as the SoCal partners will return the series to BYU and San Diego next week. This first meeting will once again be one of offense vs. defense. The Cougars enter the game averaging 83.8 points per contest on the season while the Lions enter allowing 72.8. BYU split last week in the Pacific Northwest, defeating Gonzaga in Spokane for the second straight season then falling to Portland on Saturday. The game can be seen on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, ROOT Sports Northwest and Rocky Mountain, Comcast SportsNet+, BYUtv and out-of-market at TheW.tv. As always, the game will be live on KXLU 88.9 FM.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
LMU continues to lead the league in turnover margin at +2.7, ranking second in the WCC in creating 14.6 turnovers a game by their opponent while turning the ball over just 11.9 times per game, third in the WCC. The Lions are also tops in the league in offensive rebounds at 12.6 per game, second in free throw shooting at 73.6 percent and second in the league in steals at 6.9.
Offensive rebounding was a big catalyst on Saturday. The Lions out-rebounded the Broncos 38-23 and held a 21-3 edge in second chance points. The Lions had 14 offensive rebounds and improved to 7-1 on the season when they have more second chance points than their opponent. Shamar Johnson had five offensive rebounds and is ranked 10th in the WCC with 2.0 orpg. Adom Jacko is 3rd with 2.8 orpg.
Free throw shooting was another factor as the Lions missed just three free throws in 32 attempts. They went 17-for-19 against the Dons, hitting all six in the final 30 seconds to win the game. Against Santa Clara, they went 12-for-13, going 7-for-8 in the final two minutes to keep the Broncos from staging a come-back. Freshman Munis Tutu went 8-for-8 on the week, hitting all four of his attempts in the final 20 seconds against USF.
Senior David Humphries posted a career-best 20 points on Thursday, hitting 6-for-11 from the field, going 6-for-10 from three. He is the third Lion on the season to hit at least six three-pointers in a game. Prior to this season, three Lions had done it in 20 years. 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. Sophomore Steven Haney Jr. knocked down 7-for-12 in scoring a career-high 26 points in the win over CSUF. Prior to this season, Matt Hayes hit six three-pointers a year ago against Santa Clara (Feb. 21, 2015) and Adoyah Miller hit six three pointers against Boise State on Dec. 19, 2006.
The Lions improved to 9-1 on the season when scoring more than 70 points with the 87-83 win on Thursday and then a 76-66 win over the Broncos to complete the Bay Area sweep. LMU entered the road trip averaging just 58.6 points in the first five conference games. They averaged 81.5 ppg over the week and the 87 total points against USF is a season-high, as was the Lions' 48 points in the second half. The Lions shot 50 percent in the half (15-for-30) and finished the game hitting 12-for-27 from three. They followed that with a 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) effort from long range against the Broncos. In non-conference, the Lions went six straight games with at least eight three-pointers, the best such stretch in program history. They improved to 7-2 on the season when hitting at least eight in a game.
INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions swept the two-game road swing in the Bay Area last week. The Lions have now won consecutive road games in conference for the first time since defeating BYU on Jan. 19, 2012 and at Santa Clara on Jan. 24, 2012. The Lions won five straight road games that season when the league had nine members and did not have a travel partner system. Under the travel partner system, it is the Lions' first Bay Area road sweep since defeating USF (Feb. 9, 1992) and SMC (Feb. 10, 1992). They are 9-9 overall and 2-5 in the WCC.
Senior David Humphries led the Lions to their first back-to-back WCC road wins since 2012 and their first sweep of a Bay Area road swing since 1992 with wins over San Francisco (87-83) and Santa Clara (76-66) last week. He opened the week leading the Lions with a career-best 20 points, hitting 6-for-10 from three in the win over the Dons. He added five rebounds and two assists. On Saturday, he chipped in 14 points, hitting 4-for-6 from three. He posted seven rebounds with another assist. On the week, he finished hitting 10-for-17 from the field, going 10-for-16 from three (62.5 precent), averaging 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals. He also went 4-for-4 from the free throw line. With his efforts on the week, he now ranks sixth in the WCC in three-point percentage, hitting 44.0 percent (22-for-50).
Junior Brandon Brown has led the Lions on the court this season and he made a huge impact with his 22 points and nine assists in the win over Santa Clara. The point guard has led the team in assists in every game this season, including seven points and eight assists on Thursday. He is fourth in the WCC in assists at 6.0 per game while also ranking 16th in scoring (13.4), 7th in free throw shooting (78.3 percent), 10th in steals (1.1), 6th in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2), and 8th in minutes at 33.2.
A deep bench has been a key to the Lions this season. 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 feature a full rotation, and entering WCC play, the Lions depth has been a factor. In the win over USF, the Lions equalled a season-best 48 points from their bench, getting a team-high 20 from senior David Humphries and 11 from sophomore Joshua Spiers. The Australian duo hit nine of the Lions' 12 three-pointers. The Lions have featured seven different starting line-ups this season and have played at least 10 players in every game this season except for one (at CSUF, playing nine). The Lions have played all 12 scholarship players seven of the 18 games.
More on depth: All 10 players scored at least three points on Thursday. The Lions went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 38 seconds. Freshman Munis Tutu was huge, hitting all four of his attempts, playing the final 3:38 at the point after starter Brandon Brown picked up his fifth foul. Shamar Johnson knocked down the other two. It was just his 21st and 22nd attempt on the season while it was 24 and 25 for Tutu. Tutu finished with the four points adding six assists and just two turnovers in 13 minutes. Against Santa Clara, Humphries had 14 of the Lions' 29 bench points. Tutu once again was perfect from the line (4-4) and Marin Mornar was efficient in his 22 minutes, going for nine points, seven rebounds and a block.
Adom Jacko's 22 points and 10-rebound effort in the season 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 since Nov. 13, 2009. Jacko now has four double-doubles on the season, fifth in the WCC, going for 19 points and 11 rebounds at Gonzaga. He followed that with a 21-point, nine-rebound outing at Pepperdine. He went back-to-back with 21 points, hitting that mark against Saint Mary's. He leads the Lions with 14.2 ppg, ranking 12th in the WCC. He is also ranked ninth in rebounds at 6.3 per game, ninth in field goal percentage at 52.5 and third in offensive rebounds at 2.8 per game.
