PORTLAND, Ore. – LMU men's basketball opened conference play with a 20-point road win in a total team effort on Thursday night. The Lions hit 15 threes on 30 attempts (50 percent) to hand the Pilots a 92-72 win on opening night of West Coast Conference action.
 
Keli Leaupepe set the tone with a 5-0 run of his own to open the game. After Portland scored a pair of baskets, Cam Shelton answered with back-to-back layups.
 
The lead grew to double digits as Chance Stephens and Leaupepe hit consecutive threes. The run was part of a larger 15-4 run as five different Lions hit threes in that stretch. Justin Ahrens opened the run, then Jalin Anderson and Kwane Marble hit back-to-back to push the lead to 30-16 with 9:47 on the clock.

The lead grew to as large as 16 points twice in the opening half as Ahrens capped off a 9-0 run with a four-point play at 5:21 and then Rick Issanza dunked the ball with 1:23 on the clock. The Lions took a 46-33 lead into halftime.
 
Coming out of the intermission, LMU's captains hit opening threes to turn the lead into 52-33 less than a minute and a half into the second period.
 
Anderson and Lamaj Lewis shared a 9-0 run midway through the period as Jalin hit and three and dunked the ball then Lewis followed with the next four points to push the Lions ahead by 23.
 
Shelton's layup at 8:26 secured the double-double for the senior and pushed LMU ahead by 24. Shelton nearly posted a triple-double after dishing out an LMU career-best 12 assists, scoring 15 points, and grabbing nine rebounds.
 
The Lions matched a season-high with 15 made threes, a mark they hit in the win over Bellarmine earlier this season. Ahrens led the team with four from long range for his season and game-high 18 points. Anderson shot a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance and finished with 15 points on 6-for-7 total field goals. Leaupepe scored 16 points with three made threes.

Alex Merkviladze scored eight points in the start. LMU's bench outscored Portland's bench 50-15 in the game.
 
Conversely, the Lions held the Pilots to 6-for-19 (31.6 percent) shooting from deep.
 
The WCC road trip will continue as LMU travels to Stockton next to face Pacific on Saturday afternoon. The game will tip at 2:00 PM on the WCC Network.

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