LOS ANGELES – LMU set the tone from the opening minute in Friday night's home win over Southern University. The Lions hit three threes in the opening two minutes en route to a season-high 89 points against a Division I opponent and an 89-73 win.
 
Jevon Porter hit the opening three and Alex Merkviladze followed with the next two from long range to go ahead 9-0 and force the visitors to call an early timeout.
 
An offensive rebound tip-in and a three by Will Johnston increased the score to 14-0 and forced Southern to call their second timeout before the game was four minutes old.
 
The Jaguars were held to 0-for-8 from the field to start the game before a layup at the 11:34 mark gave Southern their first field goal.
 
The threes continued as Caleb Stone-Carrawell made it a 19-point lead less than nine minutes into the game. Stone-Carrawell finished in double-digits with 12, his fourth-consecutive game of a dozen or more points.
 
Merkviladze hit back-to-back threes on a personal 6-0 run to extend the lead to 23-points. Merkviladze made 6-for-7 shots from long range and finished with 24 points on the night, one off his career-high in points and matching his career-high in made threes.
 
LMU used a late 6-0 run to push the lead to 24 with 1:29 to play off baskets from Rick Issanza and Lamaj Lewis.
 
Myron Amey, Jr. hit his second three of the half in the final second before halftime to make it a 25-point game at intermission, 53-28. Amey scored 13 points to lead the Lions off the bench.
 
The Lions hit 11 first half threes at a 61.1 percent (11-for-18) clip. The 53 points scored is the most in any half this season.
 
Southern opened the second half with an and-1, but were quickly answered by back-to-back threes from Stone-Carrawell and Johnston to push the lead to 28.
 
Porter knocked down back-to-back threes for six unanswered points to give LMU their biggest lead of the day, 67-34, with 15:57 to play. Porter scored 14 points with a team-high eight rebounds.
 
Southern closed the game on a 25-12 run over the final nine minutes to cut their deficit down to 16.
 
Matar Diop added seven points in the second half, one off his career high.
 
Aaron McBride set a new career-high mark with four assists, as LMU assisted 22 of the team's 30 made field goals.
 
LMU made 16 three-pointers to match last season's single game high.
 
The Lions have now won four in a row, and six of seven games, and will look to add to that run in the final game of the non-conference schedule on Sunday. LMU hosts North Alabama at Gersten Pavilion at 4:00 PM on Sunday.
 
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