Dec. 22, 2006

Final Stats

Los Angeles, CA (Dec. 22) - Forgive the Loyola Marymount University men's basketball coaching staff if the holiday season isn't too festive as the Lions saw a little of everything on the week - most of it going against the Lions. It continued on Friday night as Aaron Nixon's three-pointer from 35 feet at the buzzer hit nothing but net to give Long Beach State a 66-65 win over the Lions at Gersten Pavilion.

The Lions took a 65-63 lead with 2.5 seconds remaining on a jumper from Derick Grubb. The Lions erased an 11-point deficit to take the lead. After the ball was tipped out of bounds at mid-court, Nixon threw the inbound pass, got it right back and threw up a shot from near half court that was the winner.

"I feel good that we competed when we could have easily folded," said Head Coach Rodney Tention. "They made a great play at the end."

LMU falls to 8-6 on the season and Long Beach State improves to 7-4.

The comeback for the Lions came under tough conditions. The week started for the Lions with the loss of the West Coast Conference's second leading scorer in Brandon Worthy, who is out for the season with a torn ACL. At the start of the second half the Lions saw senior Matthew Knight, the fifth leading scorer in the WCC, go down with a strained left knee cap. In addition, junior Jon Ziri, who averages more than 25 minutes per game, has also missed the last two games with a concussion.

With more than 38 points and 16 rebounds sitting out with injury, head coach Rodney Tention called for the rest of the team to pick-up the slack. And they did.

"I have never been a part of team that lost their two best players in back-to-back games," said Tention. "I told the guys it was an opportunity to step up. These guys play hard and never stop. We are good enough to win games with anyone we put out on the court. We have to fid a way to get it done."

Senior Adoyah Miller scored 20 points with six rebounds for the Lions, playing a career high 38 minutes. Junior Damian Martin added 10 points and eight rebounds. Knight left the game with 10 points and nine rebounds. Grubb added nine points and six rebounds, while senior John Montgomery, who earned his first start, scored six points with six rebounds and four assists.

The Lions trailed 57-46 with 9:26 remaining. The Lions would go on a 15-4 run over the next nine six minutes to cut it to 61-59 on a pair of free throws by Adoyah Miller. After a field goal by Long Beach State, Miller hit two more free throws and then Martin hit a jumper to tie the game at 63-63 with 51 seconds remainig.

After a defensive stop by the Lions and a timeout, the Lions set-up a play to work it inside. Martin delivered a perfect pass to Grubb who drained the jumper to give the Lions the brief lead to set-up Nixon's winner.

The Lions will head back to the road as they take on Akron on Dec. 28 at 5:00 p.m.