SAN DIEGO –The Montana State University Billings men's basketball team could not get shots to fall as they fell to Point Loma Nazarene 78-43 Saturday night.  

 MSUB (1-1, 0-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) kept pace with Point Loma (2-0, 0-0 Pac-West Conference) in the first half, but could not get in a rhythm in the second and struggled to score as PLN was on fire.  
 
FIRST HALF BREAKDOWN
Running out to a 13-4 lead, Point Loma came out hot and MSUB was forced to fight their way back going on a 8-0 run to come within one point 13-12 after a Brendan Howard Layup. In a game of runs, Point Loma took their turn and went on a 11-4 run to go up 24-16 with 2:41 remaining.
 
A three point shot from Stevie James cut PLN's lead to 24-21, but the Sea Lions would answer with another run of 7-0 for a 10 point lead 31-21.

A layup from Chrishon Dixon saw the Yellowjackets go into halftime trailing 31-23.
 
SECOND HALF BREAKDOWN
The Sea Lions came out hot in the second half shooting a blistering 50.0 percent from three point range to effectively put the game out of reach and quell any hopes of an MSUB comeback.
 
The Yellowjackets could not find their rhythm and slowly watched the game get out of hand for a final score of 78-43.
 
That's how it goes some nights and PLN proved to be the better team finishing with a 38.9 field goal percentage and a 46.7 three point field goal percentage. PLN had 24 points in the paint, 22 second chance points and out rebounded MSUB 51-35. Five different Sea Lions registered double digit points in a solid team effort.
 
MSUB shot 29.5 from the field and 18.5 from three point land. Overall, MSUB scored 20 points in the paint, had only six second chance points and committed 16 turnovers to PLN's nine.
 
Howard led MUSB with 13 points and added eight rebounds. Freshman Dixon scored 10 points in only his second game for MSUB.
 
WHAT'S AHEAD: The Yellowjackets travel to North Dakota to take on Minot state on November 16. MSUB's home opener is Nov., 21 against Northwest College in Alterowitz Gym.
 
THE BUZZ: Brendan Howard was named St. Vincent Healthcare player of the game for the Yellowjackets…Howard recorded a team high 13 points and added 8 rebounds.