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LOS ANGELES - LMU men's basketball streaked out to a lead as large as 16 against Southern Utah and then held on down the stretch to claim a 75-68 win at Gersten Pavilion Thursday night. Brandon Brown was the difference for the Lions (3-3) as he had a career-high 26 points to lead the way.

Brown finished 8-for-13 from the field, going 4-for-6 from three while adding four assists and a steal in 35 minutes. The Lions (3-3) had four players in double figures as Buay Tuach had 11 while Shamar Johnson and Stefan Jovanovic had 10 each. Johnson added a career-equaling nine rebounds and Jovanovic added eight.

Southern Utah's (2-7) Randy Onwuasor, an Inglewood, Calif., native led all scorers with 33 points, going 12-for-25 from the field. James McGee added 19 for the Thunderbirds.

The Lions got off to a good first half and led by 16, 40-24, after Brown's three-pointer with 1:32 to play int he first stanza. SUU cut it to 12 at the break, 40-28.

The Lions would get the lead back to 16 with the first four points of the second half and led 56-42 with 12:04 to play in the game.

From there the Thunderbirds made it interesting, as they held the Lions to just 1-for-7 from the field with four turnovers the next six-plus minutes. They would cut the lead to four, 61-57, with 6:33 to play. Brandon would end the drought with a jumper with 6:01 to play. Onwuasor would answer to make it 63-59 with 4:55 to play.

LMU would then go on the defensive, holding SUU without a field goal until less than 30 seconds to play on a three-pointer by Race Parsons that made it 70-65. Steven Haney Jr. would hit all four of his free throws in the final 13 seconds to ice the win.

GAMEDAY STORYLINES

• The Lions won the rebound battle, 44-40, thanks to the career-best nine by Johnson and eight from Jovanovic. Johnson did it in 25 minutes while Jovanovic did it in 17. The Lions had 18 offensive rebounds and had a 13-5 edge in second chance points.

• For the first time this season, the Lions had more free throws than their opponent. The Lions got to the line a season-best 29 times, hitting 62.1 percent. Southern Utah hit 12-of-16.

FROM COACH DUNLAP

"We played with the lad for most of the game and the good news is we held them to just 37 percent shooting, won the rebound game and for the first time won the free throw game," said Dunlap. "That is good news for us. We got the ball into the paint more. I think we found that in our last game against Boise State and continued it today. That bodes well for us."

"We had balanced scoring tonight and really shared the ball," said Dunlap. "Brandon is the type of player that can control the game and he has gotten more relaxed and is really playing well. Shamar did a good job on the glass with the nine rebounds. The more he gets the ball in the paint, the more confidence he will have. And he did it in just 25 minutes tonight. He did a good job."

GAMEDAY PHOTOS

UP NEXT

LMU will head to CSUN on Saturday for just their second road game of the season. It concludes a stretch of three games in six days. Tip-off is set for 7 pm.

TICKETS

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