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MORAGA, Calif. - LMU men's basketball will play their final road game of the 2015-16 regular season when they travel to Moraga, Calif., to face Saint Mary's on Saturday, Feb. 13 at 8 pm. It will be the final game of the day in a busy slate within the West Coast Conference. It will air live on Comcast SportsNet-Bay Area and, as always, on KXLU 88.9 FM.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
THE MATCH-UP
The 2015-16 season has seen the home team find success within the West Coast Conference. However, in the last week the road teams have come up big with Saint Mary's becoming the last undefeated team to fall. The road teams went 4-1 on Thursday, including LMU's 77-72 come-from-behind victory at Pacific and Pepperdine giving the Gaels their first setback at home in 16 tries this season, 69-63. This will be the 139th meeting between LMU and Saint Mary's. The Gaels claimed the first meeting this season at Gersten Pavilion on Jan. 6, 73-48. The Gaels held the Lions to just 36.7 percent shooting. The Lions had 14 turnovers to eight for the Gaels. Saint Mary's held an 18-3 edge in points off turnovers. Adom Jacko led all scorers with 21 points and eight rebounds. The Gaels have won the last seven games in the series, last falling in Moraga on Feb. 15, 2012, 75-60. The game will air live on CSN Bay Area, ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain (joined in progress), and is available online on TheW.tv (out-of-market).
INSIDE THE LIONS
The Lions opened the final road trip of the season with a 77-72 win over Pacific. The Lions finished the game on a 14-1 run, overcoming an eight-point deficit with just over four minutes to play. The Lions committed just seven turnovers and hit 12-for-19 from three. The Lions have committed just 13 turnovers the last two games and continue to lead the league in turnover margin at +2.6, ranking first in the WCC in creating 14.1 turnovers a game while turning the ball over just 11.52 times per game, second in the WCC. The average on the season has dipped below the lowest in program history, and the previous marks happen to be the last time Mike Dunlap was with the program. Three of the six lowest turnover seasons came between 1980-85 when Dunlap was an assistant coach for the Lions.
TAKING CARE OF IT:
| Season | GMS | TO | AVG |
| 2015-16 | 25 | 288 | 11.52 |
| 1983-84 | 27 | 318 | 11.77 |
| 2013-14 | 32 | 388 | 12.13 |
| 1980-81 | 28 | 345 | 12.32 |
| 2012-13 | 34 | 450 | 13.24 |
| 1984-85 | 27 | 366 | 13.56 |
| 2011-12 | 34 | 462 | 13.59 |
MORE ON THE BALL: The Lions also lead the league in steals at 7.2. They held a 18 to 11 edge in points off turnovers on Thursday in the win over the Tigers. The Lions, who had 22 assists against BYU on Jan. 23 and then another 22 on Saturday against Portland, are third in the league at 15.5 per game and second in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.3. The assist total against BYU and Portland was the highest against a Division I team on the year. Four different players had at least two assists on Thursday.
FROM THREE: The Lions finished the win over Pacific hitting 63.2 percent from three, their best of the season and the best since hitting 10-for-15 (66.7%) in win at 17th-ranked UCLA on Nov. 11, 2011. Steven Haney Jr. led the Lions with four, including back-to-back long balls in the Lions' 14-1 run that pushed them to the win. Joshua Spiers and Marin Mornar had three each and senior David Humphries had a pair. The last time the Lions were in the Bay Area, Humphries posted a career-best 20 points against USF, 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. The sophomore Spiers erupted for a career-best 24 points, hitting 6-of-10 three-pointers, to lead the Lions in overtime against CSUN. Haney did it a month later, knocking down 7-for-12 in scoring a career-high 26 points in the win over CSUF. In that Bay Area road trip, Humphries 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. The three has played a huge role this season. The Lions are 8-3 when they nine or more three-pointers and 3-11 when they are less than nine. Saturday the Lions went 9-for-25 but Portland went 15-for-31 from long range to pull away. The Pilots hit 29-of-64 three-pointers in the two meetings this season.
AND MORE FROM LONG DISTANCE: Humphries now ranks 12th in the WCC in three-point percentage, hitting 40.3 percent (31-for-77). He is tied with Spiers, who has also hit hitting 318-for-77. Haney is 6th in the WCC in three-pointers made per game at 2.2, he has hit 56-for-167 on the season. He is now 18th in LMU history for three-pointers made in a season and 13th in attempts.
IN THE PAINT: The West Coast Conference named LMU junior Adom Jacko as Player of the Week for Jan. 25 after he averaged 24.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in two games at Gersten Pavilion against BYU and San Diego. And he has continued his hot play within the WCC. Prior to Thursday, he had led the Lions in scoring for six straight games, going for 20 or better in those contests. He is the first player to do so since Haywood Eaddy went six straight games of 20 or more between Jan. 15 - Jan. 30, 1999. On Saturday against Portland, he went for 35 points and seven rebounds, hitting 13-for-20 from the field. He attempted and made his first three of the season and went 8-for-10 from the free throw line. It was the best single game scoring effort since Drew Viney had 35 against San Diego on Feb. 25, 2010. He has 11 20-point games this season and within WCC games he is averaging 19.1 ppg, increasing that to 24.5 ppg the last six games.
