PROVO, Utah-Saturday, BYU men’s basketball (11-4) commences its West Coast Conference season by hosting the Loyola Marymount Lions (7-8, 1-0 in WCC play) at the Marriott Center.

In his first season at Provo, Mark Pope (11-4, .733 at BYU; 88-60, .595 as a collegiate head coach) has maintained the high standard set by his predecessor Dave Rose.

BYU scores 77.9 points per game, ranking the Cougars 61st nationally in scoring offense.

Senior forward Yoeli Childs leads the squad in points and rebounds (21.2 points, 9.8 rebounds per game) and blocked shots (8).

He is complemented by senior guard Jake Toolson (14.7 points, 5.1 rebounds per game), senior guard TJ Haws (12.5 points per game, team bests in assists [73] and steals [14]) and junior guard Alex Barcello (10.4 points per game).

The Cougars surrender 67.1 points per game which, incidentally, ties them with Saturday’s opponent, Loyola Marymount, for 141st nationally in scoring defense.

The Lions are coached by Mike Dunlap (77-95, .448) who is in his sixth season at the helm of the Loyola Marymount program.

Junior guard/forward Eli Scott is the Lions’ leader in scoring and rebounds (16.1 points, 6.5 rebounds per game) while also leading the squad in assists (75).

Bulgarian national, sophomore forward Ivan Alipiev (11.5 points, 4.3 rebounds per game, a team-best 17 steals) is the only other Lion to score in double figures on-average.

Junior forward Jordan Bell leads Loyola Marymount with 10 blocked shots on the season.

The Cougars technically lead the Lions 16-11-5 but because of NCAA violations, this is only officially a 14-11-5 lead for BYU in the all-time series.

By these same standards, the series is 6-6 all-time at Provo.