WCC Game Preview: Santa Clara vs. LMU
By James Pigott
Nov 22, 2013; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish center
Garrick Sherman(11) grabs a rebound over Santa Clara Broncos forward
Yannick Atanga(44) and guard
Denzel Johnson(20) in the first half at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Santa Clara Broncos (8-8, 1-2) vs. Loyola Marymount Lions (10-5, 2-1)
Date: Saturday, January 4, 2014
Location: Leavey Center, Santa Clara, CA
Time: 3:00 PM PST
TV: CSN Bay Area, TWC SportsNet
Video: theW.tv
LiveStats: http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?gid=scu&theme=santaclara
Last Season: Teams split the two matchups. The Lions won 84-80 in Los Angeles while the Broncos won 79-56 in Santa Clara.
PROJECTED STARTERS
Santa Clara
Evan Roquemore, 12.1 PPG, 3.8 APG
Brandon Clark, 16.5 PPG, 3.7 APG
Jared Brownridge, 15.1 PPG, 2.7 APG
Jerry Brown, 8.3 PPG, 6.6 RPG
John McArthur, 4.1 PPG
LMU
Anthony Ireland, 18.1 PPG, 5.5 APG
Evan Payne, 14.9 PPG
C.J. Blackwell, 3.3 PPG
Gabe Levin, 12.1 PPG, 8.4 RPG
Alex Osborne, 6.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG
KEYS TO THE GAME
Santa Clara
Roquemore needs at least 5 assists, 2 of them need to be to big men: Two weaknesses for Santa Clara recently are Evan Roquemore’s assist to turnover ratio and its frontcourt scoring. I have weaved both of them together into one goal. Roquemore needs to be able to dribble penetrate and find big men camped out into the paint. That is the only way the big men will score (other than an occasional McArthur jumper) because they have no back to the basket post player.
LMU
Get Levin and Dickinson going on offense: Similar to Santa Clara, LMU got a lot of offense out of their perimeter players in their loss to San Francisco on Thursday. Dickinson has scored only 10 points in the last three games. Levin only had 6 points on 2/7 shooting against San Francisco. Ireland and Payne have scored a lot from the guard spots, but they need these interior presences to show up if they plan on contending in the WCC.
PREDICTION
Both are 4-year starting point guards, but Anthony Ireland is the much better than Roquemore. Both teams are relatively young, so leadership from the point guard spot is crucial, and Ireland provides more of it. I predict a 74-63 victory for the LMU Lions.