The Loyola Marymount Lions captured one of their most memorable victories of the season on Saturday night, erasing a 19-point deficit to beat the San Francisco Dons 90-88 at home. LMU needed the win to remain tied for third place in the West Coast Conference standings.
What the win did for the Lions is create some separation between the top four teams in the conference and the rest. Loyola Marymount has a three game lead over fifth-place San Francisco with five conference games remaining, and the Lions hold the tiebreaker over the Dons by virtue of beating them twice. The top four seeds get a bye to the quarterfinals of the WCC Basketball Tournament, which will be held in Las Vegas this year.
| West Coast Conference Basketball Standings | ||||
| Team | Conf. | Overall | This Week | Next Week |
| Saint Mary's | 11-0 | 22-2 | 1-0 | at Gonzaga, Santa Clara |
| Gonzaga | 8-2 | 18-4 | 1-1 | St. Mary's, LMU |
| Loyola Marymount | 8-3 | 15-9 | 2-0 | at Portland, at Gonzaga |
| BYU | 8-3 | 20-6 | 2-0 | Pepperdine (Sat.) |
| San Francisco | 5-6 | 15-10 | 0-1 | Santa Clara, at San Diego |
| San Diego | 4-7 | 9-14 | 1-1 | at Pepperdine, San Francisco |
| Portland | 3-8 | 6-18 | 1-1 | LMU (Thur.) |
| Pepperdine | 2-10 | 8-15 | 0-2 | San Diego, at BYU |
| Santa Clara | 0-10 | 8-15 | 0-2 | at San Francisco, at St. Mary's |
| Through games of February 4 |
||||
Loyola Marymount hits the road to face the Portland Pilots and Gonzaga Bulldogs next week, putting their undefeated (5-0) WCC road record on the line. The game of the week in the WCC comes Thursday night as Gonzaga hosts Saint Mary's Gaels in a battle of the top two teams in the conference.