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LOS ANGELES - The final road swing of the 2015-16 regular season will begin with a series that has been dominated by the road team. LMU men's basketball will head to the Bay Area for the second time this season for the final road trip of WCC play, starting with Pacific on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 pm. The game can be seen on TheW.tv and will be broadcast live on KXLU 88.9 FM.
LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:
THE MATCH-UP
This will be the 54th meeting between LMU and Pacific and the last nine meetings of the series have gone to the road team. In the first meeting of the season between the two on Jan. 9 at Gersten Pavilion, the Tigers came away with a 60-58 win. It was their fifth straight in Los Angeles. The Lions, who won in Stockton last year in overtime 76-71, have won the last four at the Spanos Center. Pacific, who is not eligible for the 2016 WCC Championships due to self imposed restrictions, are the surprise of the WCC slate this season under Interim Head Coach Mike Burns. They are 7-15 overall but improved to 5-7 in WCC play with a stunning 77-72 win at BYU last week. The Tigers out rebounded the Cougars 41-36 and held BYU to 33.9 percent shooting, just 23 percent in the second half. In the first meeting on Jan. 9, It was another defensive struggle as Pacific's Jacob Lampkin hit the game winner with 58 seconds left and the Tigers earned their only steal of the game at the buzzer for the winner. The game featured 10 lead changes and eight ties as neither team held a lead more than eight. Alex Kobre led all scorers with 19 points, hitting 4-for-6 from three. The Tigers hit 9-for-21 from long range (42.9 percent) and finished the game shooting 45.5 percent. The Lions struggle from the field again, shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 23.8 percent from three (5-for-21).
INSIDE THE LIONS
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. He has 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.
On Jan. 23 against the Cougars, Jacko finished the game 11-for-12 from the field, equaling the all-time LMU record for shooting percentage in a game (91.6 percent - 10 or more attempts). Victor Lazzaretti went 11-for-12 against Pepperdine on Feb. 25, 1987 and Mike Yoest did it against Marquette on Jan. 6, 1988. Jacko is fifth in the WCC in double-doubles and moved to seventh in scoring at 16.8 ppg, 4th in shooting at 55.9 percent, ninth in rebounds at 6.5, 7th in blocks at 0.9 bpg and 8th in offensive rebounds at 2.5. Jacko's first double-double, a 22-point and 10-rebound effort in the season opener, was the first double-double by an LMU player in his first game as a Lion against an NCAA Division I program in 35 years.
LMU continues to lead the league in turnover margin at +2.5, ranking first in the WCC in creating 14.2 turnovers a game while turning the ball over just 11.7 times per game, tied for second in the WCC. On Saturday, the Lions had just six turnovers and forced Portland into 11. They finished with a 15-6 edge in points off turnovers. The Lions also lead the league in steals at 7.2... 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. On Saturday, freshman Munis Tutu had a career-best eight assists with no turnovers.
DEPTH: The Lions feature a 15-man roster, and as the season began nine of them were not in an LMU uniform in 2014-15. The Lions have featured 10 different starting line-ups this season, the ninth coming Thursday against Gonzaga with Marin Mornar earning his first start of the season and freshman Jeffery McClendon earning his fourth start. And then the 10th on Saturday against Portland when the Lions went with Brandon Brown, Joshua Spiers, Steven Haney Jr., Mornar and Jacko. They 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 in nine games.
MORE ON DEPTH: 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. Joshua Spiers led the bench push against BYU on Jan. 21, scoring 11 points, hitting 4-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three. Munis Tutu ignited the Lions on both ends of the floor in the come-from-behind win over San Diego on Jan. 23, scoring 10 points with four assists and a career-best four steals in 25 minutes. Against USF, the Lions went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 38 seconds against. 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. Tutu finished with the four points adding six assists and just two turnovers in 13 minutes. He then had a career-best eight assists off the bench against Portland on Feb. 6. 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. In the latest match-up at BYU, Marin Mornar had 13 points, going 7-for-8 from the free throw line while freshman Jeffery McClendon had a productive 10 minutes with six points, five rebounds and two steals. Humphries came off the bench on Jan. 30 against USD, scoring eight points with the 10 rebounds.
FROM THREE: Senior David 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. Sophomore Joshua Spiers erupted for a career-best 24 points, hitting 6-of-10 three-pointers, to lead the Lions in overtime against CSUN. Sophomore Steven Haney Jr. knocked 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 Lions struggled at BYU from three, going a season-low 2-for-22 from long range. The three has played a huge role this season. The Lions are 7-3 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 11th in the WCC in three-point percentage, hitting 40.3 percent (29-for-72). Spiers is ranked 14th, hitting 28-for-72 (38.9 percent). Haney is 8th in the WCC in three-pointers made per game at 2.2, he has hit 52-for-162 on the season. He is now tied for 20th in LMU history for three-pointers made in a season and tied for 13th in attempts.
OVER 70: The Lions are 9-3 on the season when scoring more than 70 points, earning and 87-83 win at USF and then a 76-66 win over SCU to complete the Bay Area sweep. The 97-78 setback to Portland was just the third time the Lions didn't win a game when over 70 points... The Lions scored 50 points in the first half against BYU, the first time they have down so since they scored 54 first half points at CSUN on Feb. 18, 1992. The last time the Lions scored 50 in the first half of a WCC game was 50 against USF on Jan. 25, 1992.
LEARNING ON THE ROAD: The Lions head back to the road this week after winning consecutive road games in conference (USF and SCU) 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)... War Memorial (now The Sobrato Center) hasn't been the kindest of places to play for WCC opponents in it's storied history, including the Dons picking up back-to-back national titles (1955, `56) under LMU alum Phil Wolpert. The Lions 87-83 win on Jan. 21 gave Head Coach Mike Dunlap and his Lions' back-to-back wins in San Francisco, just the fourth time in program history. They last did it in 2005 and 2006. Other "runs" in War Memorial came with a three-game streak in 1990-92, a pair of win in 1970 and 1971 and a four-game run in the Lions' first WCC title run, 1959 through the 1962 season.
WITH THE ASSIST: 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. He is fourth in the WCC in assists at 5.8 per game while also ranking 17th in scoring (12.3), 13th in free throw shooting (76 percent), 9th in steals (1.2), 6th in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3), and 9th in minutes at 31.7.
CHARITY STRIPE: LMU is second in free throw shooting at 73.4 percent and in the first road trip to the Bay Area, 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. Against BYU, the Lions were just 7-for-12 from the free throw line while BYU was 14-for-20. They went 17-for-25 against USD (68 percent), the most free throws made and attempted in WCC play so far this season, until they went 18-for-25 Thursday at BYU... 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 12.0 free throws made per game while opponents have made 16.7 a -4.7 difference.
JOURNEYMAN: 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 24 so far this season to move to second all-time with 117 blocks. The only four-year senior on the roster, he played in 108th game against Portland. He is ranked 5th in the WCC in blocks at 1.0 per game. Adom Jacko is 7th with 22 blocks, just under one per game.
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