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LOS ANGELES - With nine new players on the 2015-16 LMU men's basketball roster, Head Coach Mike Dunlap considered this season his first year, paying close attention to the process and doing things the right way. The result of the process created a team built around hard work, taking things "inch-by-inch, yard -by-yard."

And the hard work began to show dividends as the Lions concluded the season on an upswing. Taking on the adversity of losing their most productive player due to injury the final six games of the season, the Lions found a way to close the season with its longest winning streak of the season. They head into the offseason with a positive foundation to build on, and the pieces in place to take further steps forward.

"This was our first year with a completely new group. Not many programs where as young a groups as we were," said Dunlap. "But this group really came together, learned to rely on one another. They know the sacrifices you have to have to win. We've go to earn our way in this league. We did some good things to start that process. We have a long ways to go to earn respect, but we are moving forward."

They finished the year at 14-17 overall and 6-12 in the WCC. The Lions finished the regular season with a pair of overtime wins, including a 90-83 double overtime win over Pepperdine. They equalled their longest winning streak of the season with their third straight, defeating San Diego in the opening game of the WCC Championships.

As the dust settles on the season, the hard work showed in the numbers. The Lions led the league in turnover margin at +2.7, ranking first in the WCC in creating 14.1 turnovers a game while turning the ball over just 11.35 times per game, fourth in the WCC. They used that to their advantage throughout the season, going 8-1 on the season when they scored 18 or more points off turnovers.

Ball handling was among the best in program history last season. The Lions' turnover average of 11.35 was the best ever, as was their assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.37. The previous marks happen to be the last time Dunlap was with the program. Three of the other five lowest turnover seasons came between 1980-85 when Dunlap was a coach for the Lions. The previous record for assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.35 in 1986-87.

Honorable mention All-Conference selection Brandon Brown was a big reason why the Lions were among the best in taking care of the ball. He ranked seventh all-time in program history with a 2.24 assist-to-turnover ratio and his 177 assists in 2015-16 rank 10th best in program history. He was ranked fourth in the WCC in assists at 5.7 per game (ranked 27th nationally) and helped the Lions to rank in the top-50 nationally in assists per game (46th), assist-to-turnover ratio (39th), turnover margin (26th) and fewest turnovers (29th).

And coming off the bench for the Lions was freshman Munis Tutu, who like the rest of the Lions got better as the season progressed. He finished the season 94 assists and just 35 turnovers, good for an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.69 per game. It is the best ever in LMU history and ranked fifth in the WCC (and 48th nationally).

The Lions numbers only got better as the season progressed. Junior Adom Jacko, a junior college transfer from Chaffey College, began to hit his stride in conference play, going six straight games with 20 or more points. He would earn second-team All-WCC honors and might have done more had he not missed the last six games with the back injury.

He was the first player to go six straight games with at least 20 points since 1999, and he posted a career-high 35 points and seven rebounds, hitting 13-for-20 from the field against Portland. On Jan. 23 against BYU, 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). Jacko had five double-doubles on the season and still ranked ninth within the WCC in scoring at 16.6 ppg, third in shooting at 55.7 percent (which was 44th nationally), ninth in rebounds at 6.4, seventh in blocks at 0.9 bpg and seventh in offensive rebounds at 2.4.

With Jacko missing the games, the Lions stepped it up down the stretch. The most notable were senior Marin Mornar and junior Shamar Johnson. Johnson, who averaged 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per contest on the season, had a career-best 18 points and nine rebounds in the double overtime win over Pepperdine. Prior to the final game of the season, he averaged 11.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in the previous five games. As for Mornar, who averaged 7.6 and 4.0 points and rebounds, respectively, went for 17 points in the win over Pepperdine and in the last six games he hit 14-for-31 from three (45.1 percent), while averaging 13.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 2.4 bpg.

Also stepping up in his first season of action in two years was redshirt transfer Steven Haney Jr., who was named First-Team WCC All-Academic. Haney has a 3.28 GPA as a Communications major. He led the Lions in the overtime win against USF, going for 25 points, hitting 8-for-8 from the free throw line. He ranked seventh in the WCC averaging 2.4 three-pointers per game. He had 73 on the season, ranking eighth all-time for three-pointers made in a season in LMU history. He is just the fourth player in school history to have 200 or more attempts from three, ranking fifth with 208.

The Lions featured a 15-man roster and with so many new faces, the Lions' season was about a deep bench. The Lions featured 13 different starting line-ups, the 13th in the WCC tournament against Saint Mary's when the Lions went with Brandon Brown, Munis Tutu, Steven Haney Jr., Marin Mornar and Shamar Johnson. All told, 11 of the Lions' 12 scholarship players earned at least two starts while featuring at least 10 players in every game this season except for three.

And the depth was key late in the season. The Lions had five players score in double figures in back-to-back games to close the regular season and have done it three times this season. It had been three seasons since the Lions had done it prior to this year.

In the win over Pepperdine, Tutu and Jeffery McClendon provided the big lift. Tutu had 13 points, six assists and six rebounds in 34 minutes while McClendon had seven points, five rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes. In the win at USF on Jan. 14, 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. In the overtime win on Feb. 20, the shortened bench came up big. Sophomore Petr Herman had career-highs with his first double-double, going for 13 points and 11 rebounds with three blocks. Tutu had nine points, two rebounds and four assists with no turnovers in 26 minutes. McClendon played a big 13 minutes with three points and three rebounds.

The Lions won five games on the road, earning 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.

In that Bay Area trip, Humphries posted a career-best 20 points against USF, hitting 6-for-11 from the field, going 6-for-10 from three. He was the third Lion on the season to hit at least six three-pointers in a game. Prior to this season, just 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.

Graduating from the Lions' program this May will be Humphries and Mornar, who have combined to play 175 games as Lions, ranking first and second on this year's team in games played. Mornar finished tied for ninth with his 115 games played. Humphries has averaged 5.9 ppg in his two seasons, hitting 36.9 percent from three, which is ranked 14th all-time in program history. As for Mornar, he has averaged 5.8 ppg in starting 38 games. He finishes with 131 blocks, which ranks second all-time in LMU history. Mornar finishes fourth in the WCC in blocks at 1.4.

The excitement continues to build around three recruits who will be part of his 2016-17 team, freshman wing Donald Gipson from nearby Fairfax High School, 6-8 transfer Joshua Sykes from Fresno City College and 6-10 Oregon transfer Trevor Manuel, who will have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

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