Jan. 4, 2013

The Last Meeting

Loyola Marymount	75
#16 Saint Mary's	60

February 15, 2012
Moraga, CA

Lions Defeat No. 16 Saint Mary's on the Road The road warriors came through again, as LMU defeated 16th-ranked Saint Mary's, 75-60, at McKeon Pavilion Wednesday night in Moraga, Calif. The Lions improve to 7-1 on the road in West Coast Conference action, giving the Gaels their first loss at home in 17 tried.

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MORAGA, Calif. -- LMU men's basketball (7-7, 0-1) will continue its opening weekend road trip in West Coast Conference play with their second straight opponent with 10-plus wins, facing Saint Mary's (11-3, 0-0) on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1:30 p.m. The game will be the first WCC Game of the Week on Time Warner Cable SportsNetwork, Root Sports Northwest/Rocky Mountain and Comcast Sports - California. It can also be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM.

LMULIONS.COM GAMEDAY:

GAME:	LMU (7-7, 0-1) at Saint Mary's (11-3, 0-0)
DATE/TIME:	Jan. 5, 2013 // 1:30 p.m. (PST)
LOCATION:	McKeon Pavilion (3,000) // Moraga, CA
TV:	WCC Game of the Week - TWCSN, ROOT NW/RM, CSN-CA
RADIO:	KXLU 88.9 FM (Jesse Kass)
WEBCAST:	TBA
LIVE STATS:	StatBroadcast
MOBILE STATS:	StatBroadcast
RESOURCES:	GameDay Central LMU Game Notes • SMC Game Notes Media Almanac Latest on Lions' All-Access

INSIDE THE GAME
LMU will play their second WCC road game in three days while Saint Mary's will play their conference opener on Saturday. The teams split the series a year ago with both earning a road win (box scores on page 5). While Thursday's game was just the sixth time the two teams met, this will be the 132nd time Saint Mary's and LMU will face each other. Saint Mary's leads the series 77-54 and are 43-19 in Moraga. In the last meeting, LMU defeated 16th-ranked Saint Mary's, 75-60 to finish 7-1 on the road in West Coast Conference action while giving the Gaels their first loss at home in 17 tries. It was the Lions first win over SMC since Mar. 5, 2006 (11 games) in the WCC semifinals and was the first in Moraga since Feb. 26, 2004 (7 games). LMU held the Gaels to its second lowest shooting effort in conference play at just 38.6 percent, limiting them to 21.4 percent from three, its lowest in conference play and second lowest on the season. The Gaels enter the game at 11-3 overall and are a perfect 8-0 at home. Two of the league's top guards will go at it on Saturday, as Anthony Ireland enters the game second in the WCC in scoring at 20.4 while the Gaels are led by reigning Player of the Year Matthew Dellavedova at 17.4 ppg.

INSIDE THE LIONS
• The Lions are 7-7 on the season after falling to BYU to open WCC play on Thursday, while closing non-conference with a pair of wins at home, defeating Morgan State, 79-62, and then CSU Bakersfield, 73-66, at Gersten Pavilion. The Lions improved to 4-2 at home. Junior Anthony Ireland finished non-conference play scoring 27 points against CSUB and MSU. He went 56.7 percent (17-for-30) from the field, 60 percent (6-for-10) from three and 93.3 percent (14-for-15) from the charity stripe. He added 14 rebounds, seven assists and a steal. Against CSUB, he was nearly perfect, going 8-for-9 from both the field and free throw line, hitting all three of his three-point attempts in the process. He added eight rebounds, four assists and a steal in playing all 40 minutes.

• More Ireland... He currently is second in the WCC in scoring at 20.4 ppg, which is ranked 14th (as of Jan. 3) in NCAA-I (national rankings on page 6). He also ranks 10th in the WCC in rebounds at 5.9 rpg, eighth with 4.1 apg, seventh in steals with 1.5 spg and second in minutes played at 36.0. In the win over Texas State, he scored his 1,000th career point and he is now 21st all-time with 1,174 points.

• Senior Ashley Hamilton is having his best season as a Lion, scoring 20 points with seven rebounds against Morgan State and his season also includes a career-best 24 points against Northern Arizona. He is averaging 14.9 ppg and 7.1 rpg. He is 11th in the WCC in scoring and fifth in rebounds. He is also fourth in the WCC in offensive rebounds and eighth in defensive rebounds. He has 511 rebounds in his career, the 25th Lion to crack 500 rebounds for a career. He is ranked 23rd all-time at LMU.

• Redshirt junior Alex Osborne has started the last five games at center in the place of Godwin Okonji, who had emergency Laparoscopic Appendectomy on the evening Dec. 12. Osborne has responded in a big way, averaging just under eight points and six rebounds in the four starts. He had nine points and a career-best 10 rebounds against Ole Miss and then followed that with 11 points and five rebounds at Saint Louis. He is 20th in the league in rebounding at 4.6 rpg and 14th with 1.14 steals per contest.

• Utah native Chase Flint has been making a huge impact in his first season for the Lions. The Eastern Utah transfer from Fruit Heights is doing a little of everything for the Lions. Flint is fifth in the WCC in minutes played at 32.6 mpg and seventh in assists with 4.29 apg, while averaging 6.6 points per game, fourth on the Lions' roster. He is ranked second in the WCC with an assists to turnover ratio of 3.16, dishing out 60 assists with just 19 turnovers. That mark is ranked 19th in the NCAA. He leads the Lions in assists, going for six against CSUB Saturday. He also has 4.6 rebounds per game, going for a career-best 10 against Morgan State Thursday and seven to lead the Lions on Thursday against BYU.

• The Lions have showed strength on the glass, and used a +35 edge on the boards last week to earn the wins. They went +23 against against Morgan State and are ranked fourth in the WCC with a +5.1 rebound margin. In addition to the 56-33 edge against the Bears and 33-21 edge over CSUB, the Lions out rebounded Texas State 48-32 and Portland State 41-27. The Lions are second in the WCC with 39.5 rebounds per game, trailing Thursday's opponent BYU by just .3 rebounds. The Lions lead the league best 13.2 offensive rebounds per game. LMU grabbed a season-high 22 against Morgan St. In that win over the Bears, the Lions' three starting guards of Ireland (6 rebounds), Egbeyemi (10 rebounds) and Flint (10 rebounds) combined for 26 of the Lions 56 rebounds.

• Junior Ayodeji Egbeyemi is off to his best season, sitting third on the team with 10.9 points per game and 6.4 rebounds per game, ranking 20th and eighth in the WCC, respectively. He had his second career double-double on Nov. 29 with 16 points and 11 rebounds against LBSU. In the close of non-conference play, he scored 21 points and grabbed a team-best 19 rebounds (10.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg).

• The Lions closed non-conference with their fourth game hitting 50 percent or better from the three-point line, hitting an efficient 6-for-12 from long range in the win over CSUB. The Lions shot a season-best 58.8 percent (10-for-17) in the first meeting against the Roadrunners. The other two were a 13-for-25 (52%) performance on Nov. 29 against LBSU and then upped that by one with a 14-for-25 (56%) effort agaisnt NAU. The Lions are ranked fourth in the league in three pointers made per game (6.9) and three-point percentage (.368). Ashley Hamilton leads the team at 45.5 percent, which is ranked fourth in the WCC. Anthony Ireland is second on the team hitting 42.9 percent, including his perfect 3-for-3 effort last Saturday. He is ranked seventh in the WCC.

• The 2012-13 season is a combination of experience and the unknown as the Lions returned eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team that had the best season since the Elite Eight campaign at 21-13 overall and 11-5 (4th) in the WCC. With the experience, however, there is plenty of youth. The 15-man roster has just 15 years of NCAA Division-I basketball experience - one of the youngest rosters in the country.