WCC Game 12: LMU

Game Preview/Recap
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Tip-off: 4pm @ Leavey
TV: NBC Sports California
Line: Torvik- Broncos -4.7, 67% win prob; ESPN- 64% win prob, no line yet.

LMU:
Lions are the surprise team of the season in the WCC. 17-9 overall, 7-5 in the WCC, coming off the big, OT upset of SMC. Lions are currently 1/2 game ahead of the Broncos.
Top players:
6-2 guard Cam Shelton (19.8pts, 5.7rebs, 4.4assists, 35% from 3).
6-6 forward Keli Leaupepe (13.6pts, 6.7rebs, 43% from 3)
6-3 guard Jalin Anderson (10pts, 38% from 3)
6-6 wing Justin Ahrens (7pts, 34% from 3)
6-7 forward Alex Merkviladze (7.6pts, 4rebs, 38% from 3)
In the post: 6-8 forward Michael Graham and 7-1 Rick Issanza are both athletic, not significant scorers but they provide legit size, rebounding, rim protection and post D…all things that LMU lacked last season and IMO a big reason the Lions have been better this year.

One red flag for our Broncos…3pt D has been a problem while the Lions rely heavily on the 3, are 56th in the country in 3pt rate, and shoot it at 37%, ranked mid-30’s in the country. There isn’t 1 or 2 guys carrying them or shooting a boat load of 3’s; 3 pt production is spread over 5 guys who average 1 to 2 made 3’s a game.

Cam Shelton has really stepped up for them and is having a great season. While he’s capable of sinking 3’s, he’s more of slasher, does a great job of getting to the rim and to the FT line. The slashing breaks down the D, forces help and rotation and opens opportunities for kick-outs. I suspect Stewart will get the Def assignment; it’s going to be critical for Stewart to simply stay in front of Shelton and limit his opportunities to get in to the rim.

And a question for the Lions…will the come in playing with energy and confidence after the win over SMC, or will they be a bit emotionally drained and unfocused after the high of that win?

For the Broncos, we need to play a cleaner, more fundamentally sound game…make FT’s at a decent rate, take high quality shots, shoot more consistently. We need to play with urgency and focus throughout the game, not count on Stewart, Podz or Justice going on a late game run to get us the win.

Prediction: 77-73 Broncos in a nail biter.

As has been mentioned, this game is key for the Broncos in pursuit of 3’d place…with only one game vs. LMU, the winner will own the tiebreaker should it come to that. A Bronco loss would drop them 1.5 games behind LMU with only 4 to play.

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Who was the last non-BYU WCC team to beat SMC and GU in a season? We did it in 2006-07…

Has an WCC team ever beaten two different ranked WCC opponents in the same year?

These Lions have done both.

Gonzaga still has to go to Gersten…

Who knew getting these guys once was such a coup, and at home.

Go Broncos.

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Hasn’t happened before.

The rest of league COLLECTIVELY only had wins over all 3 teams in three seasons.

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We’re 8-51 against the big 3 in the last 10 years. At least we’re not Portland (3-60).

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BYU’s tenure in the WCC has been noteworthy for losing a lot of games to the 7 dwarfs that they theoretically weren’t supposed to lose, nearly 3 per season in fact.

Paper tigers.

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Is it me or will they CRUSHED in the Big 12? The talent level is higher from top to almost the bottom. Every arena is unfriendly.

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Beat the Lions! Huge game today and I hope we can show the intensity we had against USF and the resilience we had against USD. LMU showed a lot against SMC driving to the hoop seemingly at will. SCU defense needs to step up and be strong all game. Hopefully we have practiced our FT’s and got all the misses out off our system against USD. We can’t take anything for granted and LMU is ahead of us so this game is pivotal. All the games are winnable or loseable so lets start with a win today. GO BRONCOS!!!

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I’m not sure Herb’s “island man D” is going to be all that effective against Shelton. He’s got another gear like Carlos Stewart. I wish the Broncos would come with a new wrinkle on D tonight (but doubt that will happen).
I know LMU has notched wins over Gonzaga, SMC, and BYU, but they’re a step below SCU in terms of talent.
Since Sendek isn’t capable of changing D’s I think we see a close high scoring affair.
SCU 87 LMU 84

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Shelton killing us, would rather see Stewart on him most of the time.

Justice with another cold 1st half, has had a lot of them it seems; he often heats up in the 2nd half…we’ll need it tonight now down 7 at half.

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Every switch on Shelton is basicslly handing points to LMU… get a clue Herb.

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Agree on Shelton and just getting killed on the glass. Credit Tongue and Tilly off the bench. Both playing really well! Bediako and Braun…disappearing act!

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Shelton with more points than the rest of his team. That’s not sustainable if SCU could just keep Leaupepe off the glass.

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Defensive rebounding letting us down as well…has been solid most the season but have given up 11 off rebs so far…already more than you want to give up for a game.

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Yes, Tongue and Tilly demonstrating once again that they should be on the floor the majority of the time…Will Sendek ever figure that out?

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Shelton can win the game by himself as long as Sendek keeps giving him the easiest matchups every time they switch on the screen

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CT Squared might be a thing.

Great win Broncos.

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It’s time for Tilly (and probably Tongue) to be starters. They are playing better than Bediako and Braun. Braun seems to make a lot of mistakes and Bediako looks tired half the time. Offensively, Tilly is by far the most polished of this group and he makes his free throws, which only helps to justify sending the ball into him. When Tilly gets a little bit stronger, he is going to be the best big man we’ve had since Big John.

Side note…the student support for this team is pathetic. These guys are playing their hearts out and putting on a good show. What the hell else do the students have to do at 4 pm on a Saturday?

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At bronco bistro , someone asked what was wrong with Braun - answer was nothing .

Coach said that they would use JB to guard Shelton - which was crazy.

I sit near opponent bench- I went crazy when LMU had that mini time out with 18 seconds left. Brandon missed next free throw belittle we hung on

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Agree with a lot said here. Went to game first time in years. Student section pathetic. Tilly and Tongue played well. Tilly got a lot of inside points with several different moves to the basket. Pods was solid throughout the game scoring, d, and rebounding. Justice had a bad night but we won. Defensive rebounding was bad. I did think LMU got away with a lot of shoving and over the back but I probably have been away from the game to long and don’t know how the refs call it anymore. I liked Stewarts play, he did not get many shots and had a couple of turnovers but by and large played well. Two fouls in first half limited his paying time. Strong start to the game and second half which allowed us to stay close. Great win Broncos!

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LMU +16 on rebounds and +20 on second chance points. Clean that up a bit, and SCU wins by 10+.

Tilly looked great. Tongue plays with such energy, and had two great buckets that showed his skill (not to mention the dunk).

I loved using the extra fouls at the end to force Shelton to press the final shot. We get after Herb sometimes, but that’s the late game strategic work that KK was never capable of.

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