Feb. 9, 2008

Box Score

Portland, OR - The Loyola Marymount men's basketball fell down the stretch in a hard fought West Coast Conference affair to the University of Portland, 74-63, on Saturday night at the Chiles Center. The game featured eight lead changes and eight ties but after the Lions cut the lead to six Portland buried seven straight to put the game just out of reach.

The Pilots improve to 2-6 in the WCC while the Lions fall to 2-6 to create a three-way tie for fifth in the conference race with San Francisco. LMU is 5-19 overall while Portland is 8-16.

"We did not play consistent at a high level for 40 minutes tonight," said Head Coach Rodney Tention. "We knew it was going to be a fight as Portland had their backs against the wall coming into the game. We needed to play with high intensity all night and we didn't do that. We just have not been consistent and it killed us."

Shawn Deadwiler led the Lions with 15 points and Orlando Johnson added 12 points while Quentin Turner had nine. Portland had four players in double figures, including 14 points by Ethan Niedermeyer, 10 better than his season average.

After shooting 54 percent from the field in the first half, the Lions cooled in the second with 40 percent shooting, finishing 23-for-49 from the field overall (46.9 percent). Portland finished shooting 27-for-52 (51.9 percent).

The Lions trailed by five at the half, 36-31, but came out in the second on fire and took a 39-38 lead with 17:59 to play on a free throw by Corey Counts. After Portland retook the lead, the Lions scored four straight, including a jumper by Turner to make it 43-40 in favor of the Lions.

Portland then took a 45-43 lead on five straight points, including the second of four three pointers by Jared Stohl. Mason Maynard's pair of free throws at 11:30 tied the game at 45-45.

Stohl's third three-pointer then ignited a 6-0 run that pushed them to a 51-45 lead. The teams traded buckets and after a Jon Ziri free throw, the lead was 53-48 in favor of the Pilots. The lead stretched to 10, 60-50 after Stohl's fourth three-pointer with 3:43 to play. The Lions then cut the lead to just six with four straight points on free throws from Johnson and Deadwiler but they could get no closer.

The Lions finished with just 14 turnovers, five off their season average, but they paid for them as Portland only had 10. The Pilots outscored the Lions 23-15 in points off turnovers.

"We did a better job overall in taking care of the ball but we did not take care of the ball in key moments when we needed to," said Tention. "They picked up their intensity down the stretch and we didn't match it."

LMU heads to Spokane to take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Monday at 5:30 p.m. The game can be seen on FSN Prime or can be heard live on KXLU 88.9 FM.