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LOS ANGELES - LMU men's basketball opened the 2016-17 season with simple goals, including more than 20 assists, dominate the offensive glass and continue to rely on defense. They met those goals and it produced a 99-51 win over Vanguard at Gersten Pavilion on Friday night

GAMEDAY STORYLINES

• The Lions jumped out to a 20-3 lead and led start to finish. They shot 50.7 percent from the field while holding Vanguard to just 23.2 percent from the floor, including a 5-for-35 clip from the three-point line.

• Senior Buay Tuach led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting. All told, three Lions were in double figures, including Jeffery McClendon with a career-best 15 points and Stefan Jovanovic with 13 points and seven rebounds.

• Vanguard, who won the NAIA National Championship in 2014, had marked this as an exhibition. They were led by Jamal Lee with 12 points and 10 rebounds from Zach Allmon.

• The Lions finished with a 59-36 edge on the glass finished, adding 27 assists on 36 made field goals.

FROM COACH DUNLAP

"We had simple goals, one of which was to be over 20 assist. We did that," said Dunlap. Three Lions had five or more assists, including Munis Tutu with six, Kelvin Amayo with five and Brandon Brown with five.

"Rebounding is something we stress. We have good size this year and we think that can be something we do well at," said Dunlap. "We really stressed that as a goal and plus-26 will help us win games." Petr Herman led the Lions with 10 rebounds. Freshman Mattias Markusson had eight points and eight rebounds..

"Defense has been a staple of ours and when you hold a team to 23 percent shooting, regardless of the talent level, it shows you are working hard as a unit," said Dunlap. "We have things to work on but there was a good felling in the gym tonight. We had a good home crowd and it was a good start for us."

GAMEDAY PHOTOS

UP NEXT

The Lions schedule will get serious in a hurry as they head to Reno to take on Nevada on Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 pm. Picked to finish second in the Mountain West Conference, the Lions make their first trip to Reno Nov. 29, 1991. Nevada fell to Saint Mary's in Moraga, 81-63, in their opener on Friday night. The game can be seen on the Mountain West Network.

TICKETS

The best way to get tickets to this season of LMU basketball is still through season tickets. To renew season tickets, click MY ACCOUNT. To buy new season ticket, click BUY TICKETS. Have the promo code for the local community season ticket, click PROMO CODE.