NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's basketball lost their matchup with Blue Mountain Christian in the final second on Thursday, losing the Southern States Athletic Conference contest, 63-62. Loyola is now 7-17 overall and 6-11 in the league, and it'll host Tennessee Southern on Saturday at 12 p.m. for its final home game of the season.
Braelee Albert scored all seven of the game's first seven points through the first three-plus minutes, then Julian Baldwin and Milan Mejia buckets made it an 11-3 lead a couple of minutes later. Mejia would hit a 3 after that, but the Toppers trimmed into the lead a little, 15-10, at the 11:30 mark of the first half. The Wolf Pack answered, though, with scores by Leonard Jackson and Baldwin to take a 19-10 advantage by the halfway point of the first half.
The Toppers hung around for the rest of the first half, cutting the lead to two a couple of times before Loyola made the score 29-26 lat the break. Baldwin led the team with four points in the final 10 minutes of the first half, and Troy Thomas, Albert and Jackson each added two.
Scores by Baldwin and Albert fended off Blue Mountain Christian in the early going of the second half, and Zachary Lee and Mejia each hit free throws to take a 36-30 lead in the first four minutes. Jackson and Brody Adams put the Pack up eight points a couple of times, 40-32, and Mejia, Jackson and Lee moved it to a nine-point lead, 47-38, at the 10-minute mark.
The Toppers, however, used a 10-2 run over the next five minutes of play to get within one, 49-48, and they eventually took a lead, 52-51, with four minutes left. Clutch shots from Mejia kept putting Loyola ahead, 57-55, then Lee broke a 57-all tie with two free throws with 1:40 on the clock. Again, the two leads traded the lead two more times, as a put-back by Mejia and a free from Baldwin gave the Pack the 62-60 advantage with 4 seconds left. The Blue Mountain Christian's 3-pointer shooter was fouled, though, and he made all three free throws with 0.8 on the clock to give the Toppers the lead for good.
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