RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Point Loma Nazarene staggered through the first 25 minutes of action and despite a late charge the Sea Lions came up just short in a 64-57 conference loss at California Baptist Tuesday night.

The loss drops PLNU to 10-10 overall, 6-5 against GSAC foes. The Lancers evened their overall mark to 10-10 and are now 5-6 in conference.

Loma had trouble from the outset Tuesday, managing just 10 points through the first 12-plus minutes of play. Heading into the break the Sea Lions were down by 15 points, 37-22. PLNU shot just 34.5 percent in the opening stanza, including a 0-for-10 effort from beyond the arc. The Lancers shot 50 percent and sank seven threes.

The second half began as the first ended – with PLNU struggling. At 15:57 into the second the Sea Lions trailed 45-25. Point Loma then began a furious 17-4 run for the next five minutes, capped off by three consecutive buckets by Jake Johnston, to close the gap to just six points.

Point Loma kept up the pressure: a free throw from Marek Klassen cut the deficit to six; Wil Bush made a three to put PLNU within five. The Lancers, now having their struggles, missed on a pair of shot attempts before Robbie McDaniel's bucket had the Sea Lions down by just three with 1:35 to play.

CBU turned the ball over setting up a possible tying shot. PLNU coughed up the ball as well, however, and were forced to foul. Nick Paulson made one of two free throws but the Lancers came up with the offensive rebound and went right back to the line after another Sea Lion foul. Paulson made both tries at the line with just 32 ticks remaining to extend their advantage to six points and seal the win.

PLNU ended up with a 41.1 shooting percentage, though the team was successful on just 2-of-17 three point tries. The Sea Lions made 9-of-15 free throws and were slightly outrebounded, 35-33.

The Lancers shot 44.9 percent from the field and were good on 14 from the stripe.

Rhett Beal led Point Loma with 13 points with Johnston and Bush adding nine and eight respectively. Beal also paced the team with eight rebounds.

Justus Von Wright finished with 19 points and seven rebounds to lead CBU. Luke Evans scored 12 and pulled in seven boards.

The Sea Lions host Westmont for a GSAC tilt on Saturday starting at 7:30 pm.

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