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LOS ANGELES - The Cardiac Lions' season of thrillers continued into West Coast Conference action, as LMU men's basketball was yet again in another one on Thursday in Malibu. Unfortunately, they once again came on the wrong side as they fell to Pepperdine, 71-70, in the PCH Cup match-up.

Pepperdine's Chris Reyes hit a put-back off a Lamond Murray, Jr., miss with 1.6 seconds left to give the Waves (5-10, 1-2) the 71-70 lead. The Lions (7-7, 0-3) passed the ball to half court and called their final timeout to set-up a play with 1.1 left. Erik Johansson's three-pointer was short off the front iron for the final play.

It was yet another thriller for the Lions, who fall to 4-4 in games decided by seven points or less and 2-2 in one-point games. The game featured 11 ties and 15 lead changes. It continues a close PCH Cup series as both games went to overtime a year ago.

Buay Tuach had 18 points to lead the Lions who had four players in double figures. Brandon Brown added 11 points and seven assists while Shamar Johnson and Stefan Jovanovic added 10 each.

Reyes led the Waves with 21 while Murray had 19.

The Lions led by seven thanks to a Tuach three-pointer, 58-51, with 7:54 to play in the game. The Waves would then take their first lead in over 11 minutes on a Jeremy Major three-pointer with 4:12 to play.

From there the game would go back and forth, featuring seven lead changes and three ties the final four minutes.

Down one, Brown hit a pair of free throws to give the Lions the 68-67 lead with 51 seconds to play. Reyes gave it right back to the Waves with a lay-up with 32 seconds left.

Junior Petr Herman, who played big minutes with both Johnson and Jovanovic fouling out of the game, hit a lay-up with 12 seconds left to give LMU the 70-69 lead and set-up the final sequence.

GAMEDAY STORYLINES

• Pepperdine finished with a 34-32 edge on the glass with the second chance points being even with 11 for each team. Both Jovanovic and Johnson where out of the game when Reyes got the offensive put-back, going over the back of Steven Haney Jr.

• Pepperdine finished shooting 51.9 percent from the field while the Lions hit 43.3 percent. LMU went 3-for-11 form three while Pepperdine was 5-for-13. LMU went 15-for-21 from the free throw line while the Waves were 10-for-15. Both teams were called for 18 fouls.

• The Lions turned over the ball a season-low six times and forced Pepperdine into 12. They held a 15-9 edge in points off turnovers.

UP NEXT

LMU returns home for Santa Clara on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 3 pm.

GAMEDAY PHOTOS