Los Angeles • BYU was able to overcome 15- and 18-point deficits in its past two visits to Loyola Marymount to escape with wins as heavy favorites at Gertsen Pavilion, but that tactic didn’t work Thursday night.
The fired-up Lions looked nothing like the West Coast Conference’s last-place team, which they were when the night began. They took an 11-point lead over the third-place Cougars at halftime and a 15-point lead early in the second half, but refused to give it all up this time and rolled to a surprising 76-69 win, beating BYU for the first time in its past 11 tries.