FRESNO, Calif. - The Point Loma men's basketball team rallied late in the second half against Saint Martin's to force overtime, but the Sea Lions ran out of gas once they got to the extra period and fell to the Saints, 86-80, in the PacWest/GNAC Challenge. (Nov 12)
PLNU (0-2) fell behind by as much as 16 points in the second half (45-29), but continued to chip away at the lead. The Sea Lions even back in front 67-65 with 1:45 left in the second half on a 3-pointer by
Trevor Peterson, but Saint Martin's answered as they did every time.
Cole Preston hit a 3-pointer putting SMU (2-0) back up one with 1:13 remaining. Both teams failed on their next possessions until PLNU got the ball back trailing 68-67 with 15 seconds remaining. PLNU isolated
Josh Rodriguez on the wing and he drove to the hoop to get the layup and give PLNU the lead (69-68) with five seconds left. Saint Martin's quickly inbounded the ball and Preston drove to the hoop and was fouled. He hit 1-of-2 free throws to send the game to overtime.
In the extra five minutes, Point Loma took the 70-69 lead on a free throw by
Vince Boumann, but Saint Martin's scored the next 11 points to send the Sea Lions home with the loss.
Tyler Copp paced SMUwith 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Cole Preston added 19 points and Trey Ingram chipped in with 13. Jordan Kitchen just missed a double-double with nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Josh Rodriguez led Point Loma in scoring for the second straight game. He posted 18 points, five rebounds and six assists. He also turned the ball over just once. Rodriguez was one of four Sea Lions in double-figures.
Vince Boumann scored 17 points and also added eight rebounds.
Mike Planeta hit four 3-pointers en route to scoring 12 points, and
Yusuf Shehata came off the bench with 11 points.
Tanner Lancona just missed a double-double of his own as he scored nine points and grabbed a team-leading 10 rebounds.
The Point Loma men's basketball team will face another tough opponent on Tuesday, Nov. 15 when it goes to 2015-16 NCAA West Regional runner-up, UC San Diego, for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
