LOS ANGELES – After receiving an opening-round bye LMU men's basketball advanced out of the second round with a 100-74 win on Friday night over San Diego. The Lions broke a program record shooting over 63 percent in a West Coast Conference Tournament game and scored 100 in the Conference Championships for the first time since 1990, 35 years ago. LMU also shot the fourth-best percentage from the free throw line at the WCC Championhips in the program's history at 88.9 (16-for-18).
Five Lions scored in double-digits in the win over the Toreros, led by the 27 points and 7-for-8 shooting from three from Will Johnston. In two seasons at LMU, this is the third time that Johnston has hit at least seven threes, he did so twice last season with eight threes made against #16 Colorado State and seven threes made against Gonzaga.
LMU will now have to play back-to-back nights for just the second time this season. The Lions won the Cancun Challenge in November with consecutive day wins over Belmont and Wyoming to become the only WCC team to win an MTE this season.
The next opponent will be Washington State, a team that held an identical 8-10 record in conference play this season. The Lions and Cougars only met once this year, the second game of conference play in late December, which went in favor of the Cougs in a game played in Spokane, Washington. Caleb Stone-Carrawell for LMU and Nate Calmese for WSU shared game-high honors with 20 points apiece in that game.
The West Coast Conference announced the 2025 All-Conference Teams on Tuesday morning. The conference's head coaches have named LMU's Jevon Porter and Caleb Stone-Carrawell to the WCC's All-Conference Honorable Mention Team. Both Porter and Stone-Carrawell are each in their first seasons at LMU and finished first and second on the team in scoring this season. As a duo, Porter and Stone-Carrawell averaged 26 points combined per game.
LMU is one of only 19 teams across Division I with five or more 1,000-point scorers on the roster. Joining Merkviladze is Myron Amey, Jr., Will Johnston, Jevon Porter, and Caleb Stone-Carrawell. All five players surpassed the scoring milestone this season.
At three -games over .500 on the season and with just the WCC Tournament ahead, Coach Stan Johnson will the first coach since Paul Westhead to have three winning seasons in a five-year span. Additionally, the program has not finished above .500 in three out of five seasons since the 1987-1992 stretch.
The West Coast Conference announced the 2025 All-Conference Teams on Tuesday morning. The conference's head coaches have named LMU's Jevon Porter and Caleb Stone-Carrawell to the WCC's All-Conference Honorable Mention Team. Both Porter and Stone-Carrawell are each in their first seasons at LMU and finished first and second on the team in scoring this season. As a duo, Porter and Stone-Carrawell averaged 26 points combined per game.
Porter ranked 22nd in the WCC this season with 12.4 points per game and sixth in the conference with team-highs 7.3 rebounds per game and 1.17 blocks per game. Porter recorded seven double-doubles this season. Stone-Carrawell had the best offensive season of his career. In his final year of college basketball, Stone-Carrawell ranked 12th in the WCC with 13.6 points per game and seventh in shooting percentage at 46.3 percent from the field. Stone-Carrawell scored in double-figures 22 times with three games of 20 or more points.
The game will air on ESPN+ and be called by Dave Flemming and Dan Dickau.
