LOS ANGELES – The Lions are back on the court against Santa Clara tomorrow. Saturday will be the third game in five days for LMU men's basketball (7-5, 2-2 WCC) and a chance to face a Broncos team (8-4, 2-2 WCC) with an identical record in conference play.
 
In addition to both programs starting the season with split results through four conference games, both teams found themselves down on Thursday night by two at the half of their respective games. The Lions went on to have a chance to tie in the closing seconds while Santa Clara fell to a San Francisco team, that LMU beat to open conference action, 73-50.
 
Another tie between these two programs in the connection of the two head coaches. Even though Stan Johnson is in his first season leading a program, and Herb Sendek is in his 27^th season, the two were on the same sideline from 2013-15 at Arizona State. With Johnson working as an assistant coach to Sendek, the two carried the Sun Devils to the 2013-14 NCAA Tournament, and earned an NIT bid the following year.
 
The game should prove to be a good battle on the glass. LMU enters the game as the WCC's leader in rebounding defense at 30.25 per game, whereas Santa Clara's 30.33 defensive rebounds per game are the most in the league. The Lions ranks second in the conference in both defensive and offensive rebounding percentage.
 
Three of the top four West Coast Conference rebounders will be in the game on Saturday. Eli Scott ranks first with 8.83 rebounds per game, following by Santa Clara's Josip Vrankic at 8.17. Dameane Douglas grabs 7.33 boards per game, which ranks fourth in the league.
 
Scott also ranks in the league's top 10 in points, assists, and field goal percentage, but on Thursday night he cracked into the top-10 in the program record books. Scott dished out his 320^th career assist at LMU on Thursday, tying him for 10^th all-time with Brandon Worthy.
 
The game will be available to watch on NBC Sports California, ROOT Sports NW, FOX Sports Prime Ticket, FOX Sports San Diego, FOX Sports Arizona, FOX Sports Wisconsin, FOX Sports Florida, and FOX Sports South and tip at 4:00 pm. As always, the game will be available to the radio audience on KXLU 88.9 FM. 
 
For more information on LMU men's basketball, follow the program on Twitter, like the Lions on Facebook, and join them on Instagram by searching for "lmulionsmbb."