LOS ANGELES – A New STANdard has arrived for LMU Men's Basketball. The Lions (12-7, 7-4 WCC) have the conference's third best record in league play and has a chance now to do something that nobody has done this season, upset the nation's top ranked team.

Gonzaga (23-0, 14-0 WCC) leads the nation in a several ranking systems and statistical categories including the NCAA NET Rankings and scoring offense. The Bulldogs score 93.2 points per game this season. LMU, comparatively, is 5-0 when scoring in the 80s this year, but averages 70.7 points per contest (up from 64.3 ppg in 2019-20). 
 
LMU is also on the verge of becoming a top-100 team in the NET Rankings, entering Friday at 102, a five-position jump following Thursday night's rivalry win at Pepperdine. The Lions started the season 0-4 on the road, but have won four-straight away from the Bluff since then entering the trip to The Kennel.
 
Thursday's PCH Cup win is just the second time all season where LMU shot a lower field goal percentage than the opponent and still won. A big contributing factor to that was two players with five offensive rebounds and 14 total as a team. Both Keli Leaupepe and Ivan Alipiev grabbed five offensive rebounds apiece.
 
LMU and Gonzaga are the West Coast Conference's top two teams in rebound margin at 8.1 and 7.5, respectively. Mattias Markusson is one rebound away from joining Eli Scott in the all-time top 20 list for boards. Scott ranks ninth at 716 career rebounds and Markusson six on Thursday gave him 558 in his career.
 
Last time LMU beat a ranked opponent was Feb. 15, 2012 at #16 Saint Mary's, 75-60. LMU played Gonzaga twice last year, once against the #1 team in the country and once against the #2 team in the country.
 
The game will air on ESPN at 7:00 p.m. 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."