Lions’ share of praise

LOS ANGELES – Rodney Tention witnessed his share of superb individual performances during his eight seasons as an assistant under Lute Olson at the University of Arizona.

But the first-year Loyola Marymount coach cleared a spot for Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison at the top of his list on Saturday after the 6-foot-8 junior forward burned his Lions for a career-high 44 points during the Bulldogs’ 79-70 West Coast Conference triumph in Gersten Pavilion.

“That might be,” Tention said when originally asked if Morrison’s effort – which included 14-for-20 shooting and 37 second-half points – was the best he has witnessed. “Salim (Stoudamire) had a stretch there last year where he went off for three or four games … “

But then Tention reconsidered, and added: “But (Morrison) didn’t have a lot of help today. The other guys didn’t play as well … , so that’s the (best) individual performance I’ve seen.”

It’s hard to imagine anything as stirring as the final 20 minutes Morrison put in on Saturday, in front of a sellout crowd of 4,482 and a regional ABC television audience. The preseason All-American and player-of-the-year candidate, after taking only six shots in the first half, scored 11 of GU’s first 13 points following intermission and never cooled down in the least in making 11 of 14 second-half shots, including 8 of 10 3-pointers – several of which came from well beyond NBA range, with a hand or two in his face.

He scored 16 points in the final six minutes of the game, winking at ABC’s courtside telecast team after one 3-pointer and pointing into the stands at the large contingent of GU fans that was on hand after a couple of others.

“It was one of those deals where I was on fire, and I was going to shoot it from 35 (feet) just to keep testing the waters,” explained Morrison.

And on this day, Morrison, once again, gave everything he had as he raised his career points total to 1,676 and moved past Jeff Brown (1,646) into sixth place on GU’s all-time scoring list.

“He’s definitely everything that’s advertised,” Tention said. “He sensed that his team absolutely needed him to carry them today, and he did.”