USDvsLMU2016

GAME #19: The USD Toreros (6-12, 1-6 WCC) will close out their 4-game road swing with a game at Loyola Marymount (9-10, 2-6 WCC) on Saturday, January 23rd. Game time is slated for 3:00 p.m. from Gersten Pavilion.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 91st meeting between USD and LMU with the series knotted at 45-all... USD won last season's first contest on January 8th at the JCP with a 59-50 victory (Johnny Dee, 18 points; Christopher Anderson, 14 points )... LMU won the rematch in Los Angeles on Feb. 5th, 70-61, despite 29 points from Dee.

RADIO/TV/VIDEO STREAM: All USD home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN 1700AM with Jack Cronin (2nd season); his pre-game show airs 10 minutes prior to tip-off. The contest will also be broadcast by Time Warner SportsNet (Steve Quis, Dave Miller and Kelli Tennant). The game will also be broadcast regionally on ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain, CSN+ and streamed out-of-market on the The W.tv.

WCC STANDINGS (thru Jan. 22nd): Saint Mary's (7-1 WCC, 16-2), Gonzaga (6-2, 14-5), BYU (5-2, 14-6), Pepperdine (5-3, 12-7), Pacific (4-4, 6-12), San Francisco (4-5, 10-9), Portland (3-5, 9-12), Santa Clara (3-6, 7-14), LMU (2-6, 9-10), San Diego (1-6, 6-12).

WCC COACHES PRESEASON POLL: The Toreros were picked 9th in the 2015-16 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll... Team (First Place Vote) - 1. Gonzaga (9), 81 points; 2. BYU (2), 73 points; 3. Pepperdine, 62 points; 4. Saint Mary's, 58 points; 5. Portland, 43 points; 6. Santa Clara, 37points; 7. Pacific, 32 points; 7. San Francisco, 32 points; 9. San Diego, 17 points; 10. Loyola Marymount, 15 points.

COACH SMITH (1ST YEAR): Coach Lamont Smith (San Diego, 1998) is in his first head coaching position and comes from New Mexico where he was the Associate Head Coach... Prior to that he spent time at Washington, Arizona State, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's College and Saint Louis University... Smith, 40, returns to USD where he was a member of the men's basketball team from 1994-99... He started all 27 games his senior year in 1998-99 for the 18-9 Toreros... He was named the Toreros' Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 and 1999 and served as the team captain from 1997-99... Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of San Diego in 1998... Lamont and his wife Kimberly have two daughters -- Payton and Olivia.

TOREROS FALL TO PEPPERDINE: The USD Toreros dropped a 76-58 decision to the Pepperdine Waves in WCC action. The win improved Pepperdine's home record to 8-0 and their season mark to 12-7 (5-3 WCC). The Waves were paced by Lamond Murray Jr. with 21 points and Stacy Davis with a double-double (18 Points, 10 rebounds). USD (6-12, 1-6 WCC) received a team-high 9 points from Brett Bailey and Olin Carter III. The Toreros opened the game with a Cameron Neubauer basket, but then watched the host Waves go on a 17-0 run through the first eight minutes of the game. A Tyler Williams lay-in and three-pointer from Carter ended the run and got the Toreros back in the game at 17-7. The Waves would go on to take a 38-23 intermission lead with Lamond Murray (11 points) and Stacy Davis (10 points) leading the way. Vasa Pusica paced the Toreros with 5 points. USD closed to within 38-25 off a Brett Bailey basket to open the 2nd half, but were never able to cut the lead into single digits. For the game USD shot 37.9% from the field, while Pepperdine converted 52.3%. Senior center Jito Kok had one blocked shot to move into a tie for 4th all-time among WCC players with 239 (Diamon Simpson, SMC). He finished with 7 points and 4 rebounds. Freshman Alex Floresca chipped in with season-highs of 8 points and 7 rebounds.

TORERO TIDBITS:
* The Toreros close out their current 4-game road swing at LMU on Saturday... USD earned its first "true" road win on January 14th with its 82-71 win at Portland... For the season USD is 1-7 in "true" away games and 3-9 overall in games played away from the JCP... For the 12 road games the Toreros are paced by Duda Sanadaze (13.7 ppg).

* Seniors Duda Sanadze and Jito Kok both set career-highs for points in the win at Portland... Sanadze poured in 29 points (10-for-14 shooting) to top his previous high of 25, and Kok had 17 points (7-for-8 shooting), besting his prior top mark of 15 points.

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#20 in nation thru games of Jan. 21) in blocked shots at 2.56 per game (46 in 18 contests)... He owns all three USD records for blocked shots - single game: 9 vs. UC Davis, 12-15-15; single season: 75 in 2014-15; career: 239 and counting... He is tied for 4th all-time among WCC players (Diamon Simpson of SMC, 239), trailing only #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279; #2 Omar Samhan of SMC, 258; and John Bryant of SCU, 246... With a minimum of 12 games left in the season, Kok needs 41 more blocks to set a new all-time WCC record. He ranks seventh among active career Division I blocked shots leaders (239).

* Sophomore guard Vasa Pusica (Belgrade, Serbia) has improved his production since the start of WCC play... Thru seven league contests he is averaging 9.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg and 2.7 assists... Through 11 non-conference games his averages were 6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 1.7 apg.

* Redshirt junior center Brandon Perry (Fresno, Calif.) decided to leave the basketball program... This season he appeared in 13 games (thru. Jan. 2) and averaged 5.7 ppg & 3.6 rpg... He totaled a season-high 12 points in USD's road loss at Western Michigan... Last season he appeared in 29 games with 6 starts and averaged 6.2 ppg and 3.4 rpg... He scored a career-best 16 points twice (@ LMU, 2-5-15; @UCLA, 12-7-14).

* USD knocked off San Diego State in the annual City Championship game played outdoors at Petco Park on December 6th by the score of 53-48... Senior Duda Sanadze turned in an inspiring peformance with 15 points (5-10 in threes), 6 rebounds and a career-best 5 steals... Freshman guard Olin Carter III helped USD to a 31-13 halftime advantage by making 4-of-5 threes in the first 20 minutes.

* The Toreros closed out the month of December with a 4-2 record... Senior Duda Sanadze averaged a team-best 12.7 ppg during the month with Vasa Pusica chipping in at a 10.8 ppg clip... Brett Bailey (8.5 ppg, 6.2 rpg) and Jito Kok (8.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 3.7 bpg) also played key roles.

* Four recent Toreros are currently playing professionally overseas - Gyno Pomare, '09 (Kanazawa Samuraiz; Kanazawa, Japan), Dennis Kramer, '14 (EWE Baskets; Oldenberg, Germany), Johnny Dee, '15 (Polpharma; Starogard Gdanski, Poland) and Christopher Anderson, '15 (Weissenhorn Youngstars; Weissenhorn, Germany).

* The USD basketball team teamed up with the Poway Youth Basketball League Challenged Division with a clinic on January 19th... The Poway Challenged League is open to all players with intellectual disabilities... The division has been around for over 20 years and has grown from a handful of players to more than 100 participants... USD coaches and players assisted with warm-up drills, skills stations, and some entertaining three-point contests between selected USD players and PYBL Challenged participants... The fun event took place at Meadowbrook Middle School in Poway from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 pm... A recap with video can be found at www.usdtoreros.com.

SCOUTING THE LMU LIONS: The Loyola Marymount Lions (9-10, 2-6 WCC) saw their 2-game winning streak snapped with Thursday's home loss to BYU (91-80)... The visiting Cougars, who overcame a 50-40 halftime deficit, were paced by guard Nick Emery with 24 points... The Lions were paced by Adom Jacko (26 points, 12 rebounds) and Steven Haney (18 points)... Last week LMU earned an impressive road sweep over San Francisco (87-83) and Santa Clara (76-66)... For the season the Lions are paced by Jacko (14.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg), Brandon Brown (13.1 ppg) and Haney (11.3 ppg)... Jacko leads the team in WCC scoring at 15.9 points per game... LMU is 5-3 this season in games played at Gersten Pavilion, but 0-3 so far in WCC games... Head Coach Mike Dunlap is in his second season (17-33) and owns a career head coaching record of 345-138.

A LOOK AHEAD: USD returns to San Diego to host these same two Southern California teams - Pepperdine (Thur., Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m.) and Loyola Marymount (Sat., Jan. 30, 1:00 p.m.). Both games will be televised by Time Warner Cable SportsNet.