LAS VEGAS – LMU's WCC Tournament run came to a close on Saturday night in the quarterfinals with a 73-63 loss to BYU.
 
The Cougars struck first, but LMU's first lead came as Rick Issanza and Kwane Marble hit back-to-back field goals to take a 4-2 lead. BYU responded with the 12 unanswered and hit the first five shots they attempted.
 
Cam Shelton started the game 0-for-5 before hitting a LMU's first three with 11:47 on the clock. Keli Leaupepe followed with an offensive rebound putback as part of a 7-0 run to bring the Lions from down 11 to within four before hitting the 11-minute mark of the first half. LMU grabbed nine more offensive rebounds than BYU in the game.
 
A second 7-0 run erased the deficit and tied the game 3:14 to play in the half. Following a quartet of free throws, Leaupepe knocked down a corner three to tie the game at 26-26.

BYU closed the half on a 12-1 run after Leaupepe's three to take a 38-27 lead into intermission.
 
As he has done all year, Shelton started the second half with explosion. The senior guard scored LMU's first two field goals after the break, the second of which started a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to four. Shelton scored seven of those nine points in the run, with one of his two And-1 opportunities pushing him past 2,000 career points in his college career.
 
The Cougars scored the next five, but back-to-back threes from Marble and Justin Ahrens made it a one-possession game with 10:26 remaining. Another run came as a response, as BYU scored nine of the next 10 points to push the game back to double-digits.
 
Shelton followed with a personal 5-0 run to cut the deficit to six points with 6:53 to play. Those five points were the closest LMU would get for the remainder of the game as it stayed between a 7-to-12-point margin.
 
Marble and Leaupepe each hit threes down the stretch to both hit double-digit scoring. Marble finished with 11 points and Leaupepe scored 10.
 
The final LMU field goal of the game was a Shelton layup to push him to 27 on the night, 664 on the season, and 2011 in his career. Shelton also dished out six of LMU's nine assists. Shelton's 664 points scored in a single season is ninth all-time in program history.
 
Despite knocking down seven triples, LMU shot 26 percent from deep, compared to 47 percent from the Cougars.