LOS ANGELES – Following a stellar first half shooting and late rally to end regulation, LMU was unable to earn the home victory on Thursday night. The Lions and BYU were tied in the closing seconds of overtime when a late foul call put the Cougars on the line to give them a point advantage and allowed them to take the game, 83-82.
 
LMU shot over 70 percent from the field in the first half to build up a double-digit lead at intermission.
 
The Lions fell behind 5-0 to open the game, then hit a trio of threes to take a lead. Alex Merkviladze cut the deficit to one, Cam Shelton gave the Lions a two-point edge. After BYU converted a layup, Leaupepe knocked down a three of his own to give LMU a 14-11 lead with 15:21 on the clock.
 
A 7-0 run midway through the period gave LMU an eight-point cushion with 9:49 to play. Shelton hit a three and a layup to bookend the run. BYU responded with a 12-2 run to take back the lead with 6:06 to play.

The Lions closed out the first half on a 20-6 from that point to take a 45-33 lead into intermission. Lamaj Lewis tied the game then Leaupepe followed with the next five points. Joe Quintana also used a personal 5-0 run to extend the lead to double-digits. Eli Scott closed the half on a fastbreak buzzer-beating dunk.
 
LMU shot 70.4 percent (19-for-27) from the field in the opening 20 minutes.
 
With the first five points out of the gate, the Lions expanded the lead to 17 points, 50-33, a minute into the second half. Leaupepe hit an opening layup and Shelton hit a three.
 
From there, BYU used a 19-2 run to tie the game at 52-all before Joe Quintana hit a three to put the Lions back ahead with 12:34 to play. The second half featured five tie scores over the final 13 minutes.
 
On his career-high scoring night, Keli Leaupepe hit layups with 1:30 and 0:45 on the clock to cut a five-point deficit into a single point. Leaupepe scored 26 points for the first time in his career and did so on 12-for-17 shooting and a team-high seven rebounds.
 
After Alex Barcello went 1-for-2 on the other end, Eli Scott hit a layup with seconds remaining to force overtime at 76-76.
 
Quintana opened the scoring in overtime with a driving layup a minute and a half into the bonus period. After BYU scored the next four to go up two, Scott scored two of his 16 points to tie the game with 1:15 remaining.
 
The Cougars answered with a layup on the other end with less than a minute to play to tak ehte lead back, but LMU's answer with Leaupepe was able to tie the game on a layup of his own.
 
A final foul call with 1.0 second to play gave BYU a chance at the line to retake the lead. The Cougars hit the first one and purposely missed the second to give the Lions one final look with 0.7 to play after the rebound. A full court pass was caught, but unable to turn into a shot as time expired.
 
The Lions finished the game at a season-best 56.5 percent shooting after hitting a season-high 35 field goals. LMU matched the season-high mark with 10 made threes after hitting 43.5 percent from behind-the-arc. The game featured a combined 19 turnovers even with the extra period, as LMU only committed 10 in 45 minutes of play.
 
LMU will quickly turn around and continue WCC play from Portland on Saturday night against the Pilots.