SAN DIEGO---A high-level matchup produced a see-saw of a finish as the Point Loma Sea Lions (2-1 overall) suffered their first loss of the season in a 79-75 tug-of-war with the San Bernardino Yotes (3-0 overall) Wednesday night inside Golden Gymnasium.

The latest D2SIDA poll had PLNU at #9 and CSUSB at #25, but it was the Yotes who were the aggressors early in the ballgame.

"We got off to a slow start." Point Loma Head Coach Matt Logie said. "We didn't take care of the basketball in the first four minutes and that kind of set the tone for the night, unfortunately."

The Sea Lions had their two slowest starts to half's at the beginning of both periods on Wednesday night.

San Bernardino scored the game's first 13 points before Point Loma roared back, scoring the next 15 and establishing the type of contest it was going to be.

It would be a 23-2 run for Point Loma over the next seven minutes putting Point Loma in the lead at 23-17 midway through the first half.

Point Loma built a 40-32 lead at the half, but started slow again in the second, scoring just three points in the first three minutes of the half.

"In the second half," Logie said. "We just had some moments where the ball got away from us again. We have to get better at that. But credit goes to San Bern for being active and creating some of those. This was a high level, post-season game. Its important to have some of these early on to figure out how you can grow."

Point Loma would recover, building the advantage back to 7 at the 13:30 mark after 3's from Hugh Baxter and Luke Haupt.

The Yotes quickly responded to take a 61-60 lead before and immediate rebuttal from Ben Okhotin, who nailed a 3 to put PLNU back on top 63-61.

The teams would jockey for the lead down the stretch with Haupt giving Point Loma its last lead at 70-69 with 2:08 to go.

CSUSB scored the next four points before Baxter hit a game-tying 3 with 1:29.

The teams were deadlocked again at 75, before the Yotes nailed a three with just three seconds remaining, eventually adding a free-throw to seal the game at 79-75.

Point Loma was led by 16 points from Myles Franklin. All five starters were in double-figures as Mackenzie and Baxter added 14 each, Haupt finished with 13 points and Okhotin chipped in 12.

Brian Goracke was the only other scorer for Point Loma with 6 points off the bench.

The Sea Lions committed a season high 26 turnovers leading to 23 points for the Yotes. The Sea Lions surrendered 56 points in the paint, and were still leading for over half of the ballgame.

Point Loma will return to the road on Saturday night to play the Cal State San Marcos Cougars at 5:30pm.