USDvsLMUGame21

GAME #21: The USD Toreros (6-14, 1-8 WCC) play host to the Loyola Marymount Lions (10-11, 3-7 WCC) on Saturday, January 30th. The WCC Game of the Week will tip-off at 1:03 p.m. at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 92nd meeting between USD and LMU with the Lions owning a 46-45 edge... Last Saturday the Lions rallied for a 67-63 victory behind Adom Jacko's 23 points... USD received a solid 17 point-11 rebound effort from Vasa Pusica... 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 is the WCC Game of the Week and will be broadcast by Time Warner Cable SportsNet (Barry Tompkins, Casey Jacobsen and Kelley Tennant). The game will also be broadcast regionally on CSN California, ROOT Northwest, and streamed out-of-market on the The W.tv.

WCC STANDINGS (thru Jan. 28th): Saint Mary's (8-1 WCC, 17-2), Gonzaga (8-2, 16-5), Pepperdine (7-3, 14-7), BYU (6-3, 15-7), San Francisco (5-5, 11-9), Pacific (4-5, 6-13), LMU (3-7, 10-11), Portland (3-7, 9-14), Santa Clara (3-7, 7-15), San Diego (1-8, 6-14).

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 75-65: The USD Toreros were dealt a 75-65 loss by the Pepperdine Waves Thursday evening at the JCP. Pepperdine received a season-high 25 points from senior forward Stacy Davis, and 17 points from guard Lamond Murray Jr. San Diego was paced by the freshman duo of Olin Carter III (15 points) and Alex Floresca (13 points) who each totaled new career-highs. Davis scored 17 of his 25 in the first half in helping the Waves to a 45-32 intermission lead. The Toreros would battle back to within 7 points twice, the last coming at 54-47 on a Jito Kok jumper with 15:33 to go. Pepperdine's Amadi Udenyi answered with a three-pointer and the Waves would lead by double-digits the rest of the way. Pepperdine shot 48.2% for the game and converted 18-23 free throws. Besides Carter and Floresca, the Toreros received double-digit scoring from Kok (12 points) and Marcus Harris (10 points). USD out-rebounded the Waves, 39-29, but had 13 turnovers to just 7 for the Waves. San Diego shot 43.3% from the field for the game (26-60) but managed to connect on just 5-of-25 three-pointers.

TORERO TIDBITS:
* The Toreros continue their 4-game homestand at the JCP where they are currently 3-4 this season... Two Toreros average in double-digit scoring at home - Vasa Pusica (11.0 ppg) and Jito Kok (10.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 3.6 blocks per contest)... Brett Bailey (9.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and Duda Sanadze (9.5 ppg) are just outside of double-digit averages... As a team the Toreros average 63.3 ppg and 37.7 rebounds while holding opponents to 63.7 ppg & 34.1 rpg.

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#17 in nation thru games of Jan. 28) in blocked shots at 2.55 per game (51 in 20 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: 244 and counting... He is 4th all-time among WCC players, trailing only #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279; #2 Omar Samhan of SMC, 258; and #3 John Bryant of SCU, 246... With a minimum of 10 games left in the season, Kok needs 15 more blocks to move into the #2 spot, and 36 to set a new all-time WCC record... He ranks tied for 6th among active career Division I blocked shot leaders (244).

* Sophomore guard Marcus Harris (San Antonio, TX) made it back into the line-up at LMU last week after missing four games due to an eye injury suffered late in the USF game on January 7th... Against the Lions, Harris chipped in with 7 points and his three-pointer with 1:02 left in the game pulled the Toreros to within 63-61... For the season he has appeared in 16 games with 14 starts and averages 8.0 points per game.

* Freshman forward Alex Floresca (Webster Groves, Mo.) is coming off a season-best 13 point effort against the Pepperdine Waves... He converted 5-for-5 from the field and chipped in with 5 rebounds in 20 minutes of action... Over the past 3 games he is averaging 8.3 ppg and 4.7 rpg.

* The WCC announced on January 22nd the adjusted WCC Men's Basketball Championship bracket. It has been revised to a nine-team format after the WCC membership reconfigured its men's basketball tournament due to the University of the Pacific's withdrawal. The #8 and #9 seeds will play on Friday, March 4th in a 6:00 p.m. contest (BYUtv, TheW.tv) with the winner advancing to play the #1 seed on Saturday, March 5th, in the 7:00 p.m. contest (ESPN2/WatchESPN).

* 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.

* 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 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT LIONS: The Loyola Marymount Lions (10-11, 3-7 WCC) are coming off an 87-62 loss at BYU Thursday evening... Junior forward Adom Jacko led three Lions in double-digits with 20 points... Last week LMU dropped a 91-80 home contest to BYU, then followed up with a 67-63 win over USD... Following those two game Jacko was tabbed the WCC Player of the Week after averaging 24.5 ppg & 8.5 rpg... He tallied 23 points in the win over San Diego... For the season the Lions are paced by Jacko (15.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg), Brandon Brown (12.9 ppg) and Steven Haney (10.6 ppg)... Jacko leads the team in WCC scoring at 17.0 points per game... LMU is 4-8 in away contests this season, and 2-4 in WCC road games... Head Coach Mike Dunlap is in his second season (18-34) and owns a career head coaching record of 346-139.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros close out their 4-game homestand next week with contests against Pacific (Thur., Feb. 4, 7pm, FSSD TV) and Saint Mary's College (Sat., Feb. 6, 6pm, FSSD TV).