On Saturday, Loyola Marymount heads to War Memorial Gymnasium to take on San Francisco. It takes place at 4:30 EST and you can see it on TWCSN or CSN-CA. The Lions are 4-6 against the Dons over the last four years. They fell 67-60 on 3/2/2012, the last time they met.

San Francisco and Loyola Marymount are packed together in the conference, holding down 9th and 8th place, respectively.

In spite of 19 points from Anthony Ireland, the Lions came up short 78-70 against San Diego on January 16th. He leads the team with 20.7 points per game and 1.7 steals per game. The Dons were defeated by Santa Clara 85-54 on January 17th despite 8 points and 5 rebounds from Mark Tollefsen. He is averaging 6.4 points per game in addition to a team-best 0.6 blocks per game. San Francisco will hope to exploit their strength in defensive rebounding percentage in this matchup. Their mark of 74.6 in this area ranks 2nd in the conference and 8th in the country.

San Francisco StatSmack

  • Diaper Dandies love us. Loyola Marymount has recruited more McDonald's All-Americans out of high school than San Francisco (2 vs 1).
  • The Loyola Marymount blocks leader (Ayodeji Egbeyemi) has more blocks than the San Francisco blocks leader (Mark Tollefsen).
  • Loyola Marymount players are more experienced than San Francisco players (10,674 minutes played vs 5,851 minutes played).
  • Ayodeji Egbeyemi is ranked 8th in the West Coast in rebounds and 9th in the West Coast in three-pointers.
  • Loyola Marymount is bigger. The average weight of the top 8 players on Loyola Marymount is 208 lbs compared to 199 lbs for San Francisco.
  • You'll do better on next semester's exams, right? Loyola Marymount currently has a higher Academic Progress Rate (949 to 939) than San Francisco, per the NCAA.
  • Anthony Ireland is ranked 9th nationally in points, 10th in the West Coast in rebounds, 9th in the West Coast in three-pointers, 8th in the West Coast in assists, and 8th in the West Coast in steals.
  • Loyola Marymount is better under pressure, and has defeated San Francisco in 6 out of the last 11 games decided by 5 points or fewer.
  • We're so much better than you, we get lazy. Loyola Marymount has come back to win after being down at half against San Francisco 4 times since 2004.
  • Chase Flint is ranked 7th in the West Coast in assists.
  • The Loyola Marymount basketball team finishes what they start, with a better graduation rate than San Francisco (87% vs 50%).