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The 2018-19 LMU women's basketball season has arrived and the team opens at home tomorrow night vs. UCLA. Tipoff at Gersten Pavilion is set for 7:30 p.m. after the Lion men take on Westcliff University at 5. This is the Lions' first season-opener at home since the 2002-03 season, with 15 consecutive road-openers from 2003-04 through 2017-18. Live stats, live stream and tickets for the home-opener are available here.
 
LMU returns to the court after a strong season in 2017-18, finishing with a 19-11 record, marking the team's most wins since 2006-07. The Lions began last season with a 7-0 record, which was the program's best start to a season since 2003-04.
 
Head Coach Charity Elliott notched a major milestone last season, earning her 250th career coaching win in a victory at San Diego. She enters her seventh season at the helm of LMU women's basketball in 2018-19.
 
LMU finished tied for third in the WCC last season, the highest seeding for the team since 2008-09. Their 11 conference wins was also the most by the Lion women since 2003-04, when the team won the WCC Championship and appeared in the NCAA tournament.
 
The Lions ranked atop the WCC in several categories last season and were first overall in assists (16.1) and offensive rebounds (14.8) per game.
 
Senior Gabby Green was named to the 2018-19 All-WCC Preseason Team after a dominant junior season. The 6-2 guard was named the 2018 WCC Newcomer of the Year and selected to the 2018 All-WCC First Team last year. She led the WCC in steals on the season with an average of 3.2 per game and was known as the "stat stuffer" around the league with additional averages of 13.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. Green snagged a career-high seven steals on Dec. 28 vs. Saint Mary's.
 
Senior Bree Alford is also coming off of a strong 2017-18 season. She earned 2018 All-WCC Honorable Mention as a junior after averaging a team-high 8.7 rebounds per game, which was the third-highest average in the league. Alford also averaged 7.8 points and 1.7 assists per game. She led the team in double-doubles with five as a junior. Alford tallied 252 rebounds in each of her last two seasons, and currently ranks fifth all-time in LMU women's basketball for total rebounds with 701. She needs 238 boards her senior season to take over the No. 1 spot for Lions' all-time rebounds.
 
Senior Andee Velasco currently ranks fourth all-time in LMU history in career assists with 384. The 5-8 guard was the WCC assist leader as a sophomore in 2016-17 with an average of 5.9 per game. She has scored 633 points with 384 assists and 225 rebounds in her three seasons with the Lions.
 
LMU also returns seniors Bianca Velasco and Josie Buckingham who provide strong leadership for the Lions both on and off the court. Bianca Velasco had five games with at least one 3-pointer in 2017-18 while Buckingham 2+ blocks in five contests.
 
The Lions also look forward to the return of juniors Cierra Belvin and Raychel Stanley. Belvin participated in 30 games with 17 starts as a sophomore, posting averages of 4.2 points, 2.5 boards and 1.8 assists. Stanley saw drastic improvement over the season and became a starter in conference play. She scored in double figures in nine straight games from Jan. 20 through Feb. 17 and posted a career-high 28 points with 10 rebounds at Pepperdine on Feb. 10.

Sophomores Chelsey Gipson and Jasmine Jones are back for their second season. Jones racked up four double-figure scoring games as a freshman and averaged 5.1 points and 3.8 rebounds on the year. She had a season-high 15 points with six rebounds vs. Pacific on Dec. 30. Gipson posted averages of 5.0 points, 1.8 boards and 1.3 assists in her rookie season. She had a season-high 16 points with three 3-pointers vs. San Francisco on Feb. 17 and also tallied 14 points while draining four threes in the season finale, also vs. San Francisco, at the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas.
 
Transfer Meghan Mandel will make her LMU debut this year after sitting out the 2017-18 season following her departure from Marquette, and sophomore Brittney Reed will return to the Lions' lineup after missing last season due to injury.
 
LMU has added three freshmen to the mix, with standout guard Naomi Yim of Norco High School highlighting the list and Haley Herdman and Glory Jones rounding out the roster.

Coach Elliott is returning two staff members for the upcoming season, assistant coaches Chris Elliott and Jasmin Holliday. Holliday was promoted to assistant coach from her role as director of operations last season. The team welcomed new assistant coach Jhasmin Player in the offseason, along with director of operations Emily Ben-Jumbo and graduate assistant Daisy Feder.
 
LMU hosted Point Loma in an exhibition matchup last Thursday and secured an 81-53 victory. Jasmine Jones led all scorers in the win with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds.
 
The Lions were predicted to finish fourth in the WCC's women's basketball preseason poll, as voted by the league's 10 head coaches.
 
The team begins WCC play on Dec. 29 vs. Gonzaga after 12 non-conference games.