LAS VEGAS – The injury-plagued 2023-24 season came to a close on Friday night as LMU men's basketball lost in the second round of Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Championships. The Lions fell to Portland, 78-70, in the night's final game.
 
The Lions started the night with a three from Will Johnston and a breakaway layup from Justice Hill to score the game's first five points.
 
The Lions held the lead until a 9-0 run by the Pilots on three-made threes gave Portland their first lead of the night. Lamaj Lewis ended the run with a layup.
 
Back-to-back threes from Justin Wright tied the game at 25-all with just over seven minutes to play in the first half.
 
Those threes were part of a larger 16-2 run as Aaron McBride and Hill hit threes and Michael Graham and Alex Merkviladze followed with layups for 10 unanswered points.
 
Portland hit a three just before the half to make it a five-point game at intermission, with LMU leading 37-32 going into the locker room.
 
Graham scored back-to-back baskets, a layup and a dunk, early in the half to push LMU's lead to seven points, 43-36, less than three minutes into the return to action.
 
Portland followed a layup from Lars Thiemann with a 9-0 run that flipped the score to 52-48 in favor of the Pilots with 11:49 remaining. Hill ended the run with a three as part of his team-high 20 points.
 
The Lions tied the game at the midway point of the half as Michael Graham converted an And-1 at the rim to bring the score to 54-all. Graham scored 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting and shared team-high rebounding marks with Merkviladze at eight boards apiece.
 
Portland again responded with three straight threes to go back up nine with less than six to play.

The Lions scored the next six points to cut the score to single digits before Portland secured the game with made free throws down the stretch.
 
Justin Wright hit the game's last two field goals to finish with 14 points.
 
Portland hit 13 threes at a 48 percent rate.

In addition to Hill's 20 points, the grad senior led the Lions with six assists.
 
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