Men continue push for fourth seed

I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief after Saturday night’s men’s basketball win over Pepperdine. For us seniors, it was the team’s last shot to earn a win over our rivals during our time at LMU, and to be honest, it couldn’t have come at a more important time. With the win, the Lions match Pepperdine with a conference record of 3-5, putting us in a tie for fifth place.

I know I’ve said this before, but our team is doing everything possible to obtain the fourth seed for the WCC Tournament. If able to do so, the Lions would get a first-round bye in Vegas, and knowing how inconsistent our team is, that would be huge. It would then take just three wins for us to win the tournament and get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, and considering our team put together a six-game winning streak earlier this season, which included an upset over Notre Dame, this dream scenario definitely remains a possibility.

Furthermore, Saturday night’s game was encouraging in many ways. Sophomore Drew Viney, who is the most important scoring weapon the Lions have, had his second straight 20-point game. More importantly, he shot 9-14 from the field and 3-6 from behind the arc. He talked to me after the game about how he has begun to take 1,000 shots per day in order to get his shot more consistent and feeling good, and if he continues to shoot like this then the Lions are a far better team than they were even two weeks ago.

I would argue that junior Vernon Teel had his best game of the season on Saturday. No, he didn’t score 27 points like he did at Gonzaga, but he did go 7-9 from the floor with 18 points and on top of that had seven assists and just one turnover. He was constantly looking to get his teammates involved, but at the same time didn’t overpass the ball; when the shot should have been his he took it, and luckily for the Lions, all but two of the times he made it.

The Lions also welcomed back sophomore Jarred DuBois, who had missed four games due to dehydration. I said this last week but I’ll say it again, DuBois’ prescence on the court was missed more then most people know. While it was clear he was still working to find his shot (as he went 4-13 from the floor) his clutch shooting is irreplaceable. When the Waves began to make their comeback and closed the Lions’ lead to 12, it was DuBois who swished the next basket in for the Lions and gave LMU its momentum back. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows Lions’ basketball.

Redshirt freshman Ashley Hamilton also came back from injury, and although he only had four points it was obvious that he is an important part to this team. While redshirt sophomore Tim Diederichs and freshman Alex Osborne have been playing solid defense in Hamilton’s absence, they just don’t have the same offensive mindset or post dominance that Hamilton does. Assuming his knee continues to get stronger after the injury, Hamilton will get his share of points in the paint during the Lions final six regular season games.

Lastly, sophomore Kevin Young has become one of the Lions’ most consistent players. Always a fan-favorite, Young has begun to constantly average double-figures in scoring, and his high shooting percentage is extremely valuable to LMU. If he can continue to score 15-20 points per game, he could be the x-factor the Lions need to steal a win away from a team like Portland, Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s.

There’s no doubt about it that two early conference losses put the Lions in a bit of a whole, but this weekend’s games against Santa Clara and San Francisco are really going to be the difference. There is no reason the Lions shouldn’t go 2-0 this weekend, and as a fan of the team I am not going to accept anything less.