SAN DIEGO -- Marek Klassen took an inbound pass from Wil Bush and laid in the game-winning shot as time expired to give Point Loma Nazarene a 72-71 victory over visiting San Diego Christian Tuesday night in Golden Gym.

The win lifted the Sea Lions to a 13-11 overall mark and ups their conference record to 9-6.

"At this point in the year, you take what you can get," said PLNU Coach Ethan Hamilton. "Every win is huge."

San Diego Christian fell to 7-18, 1-14 GSAC. Though the Hawks have struggled this year, Point Loma's crosstown rivals came to play.

The opening minutes belonged to PLNU, however. Midway into the opening stanza it was the Sea Lions ahead by nine. The lead was eight with just 4:14 left in the first, but SDCC charged back with a 12-3 run and headed into the break up 45-44.

"It's probably the most frustrated I've been about our defense," Hamilton said. "At the end of the first half we couldn't get stops."

The Hawks stretched their advantage to nine points twice in the second half. Point Loma went on a run of their own, though, and would retake the lead on a Rhett Beal layup at the 5:28 mark.

The two sides would fight tooth-and-nail down the stretch. San Diego Christian was in front 69-66 with 1:22 left before Beal sank two free throws to narrow the gap to one. Klassen, who had only six points at this juncture, scored on a layup after a SDCC miss with 22 seconds to play.

PLNU was up 70-69 but Klassen fouled Benjo Arvizu on the next Hawk possession. Arvizu calmly made two free throws to give SDCC a 71-70 lead.

With a foul to give, the Hawks did just that as Point Loma made its way down the court. Three timeouts were then called: two by the Sea Lions and one by SDCC as both teams planned strategy for the last possession.

Setting up in front of his own bench, Bush tossed in the pass to Klassen who cut straight for the hoop and through the Hawk defense, putting the ball in with time running out.

"Marek wasn't having a very good game," said Hamilton. "But we wanted the ball in his hands."

The last-second win was the second that the crowd at Golden Gym has been treated to recently. On January 30 the Sea Lions pulled out a one-point win in similar fashion against Westmont.

"We found ourselves down nine and we did what we've done all year: fight back," said Hamilton.

The Sea Lions ended up shooting 53.8 percent from the field  Tuesday, while SDCC shot 47.9 percent. Beal led PLNU with 13 points and eight rebounds with Klassen, James Hancock and Greg Murray each scoring 10 points.

Hawk Tyler Mutton led all scorers with 18 points. Felix added 15 points with Arvizu contributing 12.

PLNU will be up in Santa Clarita on Saturday to take on The Master's in a GSAC tilt that starts at 7:30 pm.