Men’s basketball suffers last-second loss Saturday

NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans men's basketball team erased a 10-point deficit late in Saturday's matchup with Faulkner University, but the Eagles made a shot with 4 seconds remaining to earn the 83-82 win over the Wolf Pack. 
 

Loyola (11-4, 3-2 in SSAC) will hit the road next week to take on two Southern States Athletic Conference foes from Georgia. First, the Pack will play Abraham Baldwin at 6:30 p.m. CST on Thursday before a 1 p.m. CST contest at Thomas on Saturday. 
 

Loyola built a 12-0 lead before Faulkner could get on the board at the 16:43 mark. Kosta Bjelicic and Kameron Johnson scored the first two buckets for the Wolf Pack, then Reece Seicshnaydre poured in eight straight with two 3s. Seicshnaydre made his third 3-pointer a minute later, 15-4, and Kameron Johnson accounted for seven straight points for Loyola to get to the score 24-13 with less than 12 minutes left in the first half. 
 

Faulkner finished the first half well, outscoring Loyola 22-14 to trim its deficit down to three, 38-35, by halftime. Bjelicic led the Wolf Pack during that stretch with six points, and Johnson added five more to have a game-high 14 points at the break. 
 

The Wolf Pack started the second half well with 14 points through the first three minutes and 15 seconds. Cameron Williams grabbed an offensive board and made a tough layup to get things started, then Leonard Jackson hit a 3-pointer for Loyola's first five points, 43-35. Bjelicic hit two shots and Jackson and Seicshnaydre each added another to help bring the lead to 10 quickly. Faulkner made a couple of shots over the next 90 seconds to cut Loyola's lead to 54-48 by the half's first media timeout at the 14:42 mark. The Eagles would eventually tie the game at 56-all two minutes later. 
 

After Johnson briefly broke the tie, Faulkner hit a 3 to take its first lead of the game, 59-58. Trailing 62-58, Johnson made two big shots, including one from beyond the arc, to keep it a one-score game, 64-63, with nine minutes left. Faulkner, however, extended its lead out to six, 70-64, three minutes later, and 10, 77-67, a minute and a half after that. 
 

The Wolf Pack responded with a 10-0 run that was started by a 3-pointer by Jackson. Johnson hit a 3 as well, and Seicshnaydre and Jackson each added two more baskets to even the game, 77-77, with 2:50 left. From there, Faulkner and Seicshnaydre traded 3s, and Bjelicic scored to put Loyola up two, 82-80, with less than a minute to go. Faulkner got a free throw with 27 seconds left and a field goal with 4 seconds left to regain the lead. Loyola missed its final shot as time expired. 
 

Pack Facts

• Kameron Johnson put up game highs in points (27), assists (9), and steals (5) while hitting four three-pointers, his most in any game in his Wolf Pack career. 

• Reece Seicshnaydre set a new career high with 18 points against the Eagles, going 6-of-8 from the field and 4-of-5 from three. 

• Leonard Jackson and Kosta Bjelicic each had 15 points in the game.