Dec. 22, 2007

Box Score

Los Angeles, CA - For the second straight Saturday the Loyola Marymount men's basketball team found heartache in the form of overtime, falling to Wagner 82-79 in an extra frame at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday. The heartache had a familiar tone as the Lions turned the ball over 21 times equating into 25 Wagner points.

Just like last Saturday in an overtime setback to UC Riverside, the Lions held a three-point lead in the final seconds but Wagner's leading scorer Mark Porter hit a desperation three-pointer to tie it with 17 seconds left. This came after the Lions erased an eight-point deficit to take the lead.

Wagner jumped out to a seven-point lead in the overtime frame and the Lions could get as close as two. After Porter went one-for-two at the free throw line with 21 seconds remaining, junior Corey Counts had his three-point attempt blocked by Justin Drummond to end it.

Freshman Orlando Johnson had another stellar effort fall short in overtime. After going for a career-high 25 points against UCR to rank third all-time in points by a freshman, he did one better with 26 points as he and Chris Haney (1985) are the only two players in LMU history to have two games in the freshman top-five in scoring. He went 8-for-12 from the field with six rebounds and three assists.

Fellow freshman Tim Diederichs was the only other player in double digits with 14 points and sophomore Max Craig had a career-high nine points as the Lions fall to 3-10 on the season. Porter had 26 points for Wagner and Joey Mundweiler added 20 to lead Wagner to an 8-3 record.

The Lions did not help themselves with the 21 turnovers and a 21-for-34 effort from the free throw line. The Lions finished 61.6 percent from the charity stripe to Wagner's 58.3 percent (14-for-24). Wagner finished the game shooting 49.2 percent, going 51 percent in the second half and 71.4 percent in overtime. LMU shot 44.6 percent for the game, 50 percent in the second half and 66 percent in the overtime.

"We are not learning how to take care of the ball. I am not sure what to say anymore. It is the same thing every game. It is killing us," said Head Coach Rodney Tention. "We had another chance to win a game and failed to do so. Turnovers are killing us."

The Lions trailed 51-43 after Porter hit a pair of free throws with 10:53 remaining in regulation. Throughout the next 10 minutes the Lions got the lead to as low as two and trailed 65-62 with 2:57 to play. They finally drew even on a Johnson three-pointer with 2:13 to play and took a 68-66 lead on another three-pointer by Johnson.

Junior Marko Deric was fouled grabbing an offensive rebounded and hit just one of two free throws. The miss hurt the Lions as Porter would drain the three-pointer to send it to overtime.

The Lions have eight days off over the holiday break and will close their home portion of the non-conference schedule when they host undefeated Sam Houston State on Dec. 30 at 3 p.m.