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LOS ANGELES - Down by 12 with just over three minutes to play, LMU men's basketball had a chance at the win in the closing seconds thanks to full court ball pressure that erased all but one-point of that lead. Boise State, however, was able to hang on for an 80-79 win at Gersten Pavilion Monday night.

The Lions trailed 78-66 with 3:11 to play after Boise State's (5-4) Justinian Jessup hit a lay-up. Five straight points by Brandon Brown cut the lead to 78-71 with 2:26 on the clock. The Lions got a Shamar Johnson lay-up and a Steven Haney three-pointer wrapped around a couple Bronco free throws to cut the lead to 80-76 with 1:47 to play.

LMU (2-3) wasn't done as Kelvin Amayo grabbed a steal and converted on a lay-up to make it 80-78 with 1:33 to play. Amayo then got to the free throw line and hit one-of-two to make it 80-79 with 51 seconds left.

The Lions would force a Boise State miss and get the ball back with 25 seconds left. Amayo would drive the baseline and missed the jumper in traffic with three seconds to play but the Lions to the rebound out of bounds for a final shot with 1.7 seconds left. After a pair of timeouts, Haney's three-pointer from the corner went of the iron.

Stefan Jovanovic and Johnson led the Lions with 14 points each while Haney and Brown added 13 points each. Johnson led the Lions with seven rebounds while Brown added nine assists, his season-high. Chandler Hutchison led all scorers with 17 points.

GAMEDAY STORYLINES

• It was an offensive track meet in the first half. Boise State finished the half shooting 63.3 percent while the Lions hit 54.8 percent. The Broncos went 19-for-30 from the field while the Lions went 13-for-31. BSU went 7-for-15 from three while the Lions went 5-for-12.

• For the game, Boise State finished 58 percent from the field. After 30 attempts in the first half, they went just 10-for-20 from the field in the second, hitting just 2-of-6 from three. The Lions finished shooting 52.3 percent, attempted 14 more shots than the Broncos in the second half. Boise State went 13-for-22 from the free throw line while LMU was 4-for-6.

• The Lions outscored BSU 44-36 in the paint and the two teams combined to score 48 points off turnovers. The Lions forced the Broncos into 19 while having 15 themselves. The game was tied seven times and the lead changed hands 10 times.

FROM COACH DUNLAP

"The key down the stretch was our ball pressure," said Head Coach Mike Dunlap. "We did a good job tonight of pushing back multiple time tonight. We showed unbelievable guts in coming back. We have some work to do, but we have positives to build off of."

"Once again we are disappointed because of our missed free throws in crunch time. Just like in the UCONN game, we lost by one and had key misses at the free throw line."

"In the first half I was disappointed in our defense," said Dunlap. "But we did a much better job in the second half. We allowed them just 20 shots in the second half when they were on pace for 100 points in the first half."

GAMEDAY PHOTOS

UP NEXT

The Lions will end their four-game homestand with Southern Utah on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 7 pm.

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