Chris Lofton can still shoot it.
The Mason County graduate and Southeastern Conference career leader in 3-pointers made went 6-of-11 from beyond the arc and finished with 20 points to lead his French Le Mans Sarthe team to a 72-67 win over Lyon-Villeurbanne in the second game of an opening round series in the Ligue Nationale de Basket Jeep ELITE playoffs on Friday.
Le Mans, who was facing elimination, evened the quarterfinal series, 1-1, with the victory and will host a deciding game three on Sunday.
Lofton had two points in the first quarter as Le Mans led, 20-11, and kicked off the second quarter with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 12. Lyon-Villeurbanne used a 12-0 run to tie the game at 23-all, but Le Mans took a 37-28 lead into halftime.
He added nine points in the third quarter with three made triples, including two in the final 10 seconds of the frame to help his team from a one-point, 49-48 lead to a 55-50 lead heading into the fourth.
Lofton kept the hot hand, starting the scoring in the final quarter with his fifth made 3-pointer to make it an eight-point game. Lofton hit his sixth shot from beyond the arc with 4:47 remaining, making it a 64-57 Le Mans lead.
Lyon-Villeurbanne took a 67-66 lead with 1:58 to play, but Le Mans closed out the game two victory with six straight points for the win.
Le Mans was coming off an 81-68 loss in the first game of the series on Tuesday. Lofton didn’t score in 17 minutes in the contest.
The Mason County graduate is in his 10th season playing professionally overseas. In 21 games this season, Lofton averaged 8.4 points and shot 45 percent from beyond the arc, according to statistics on the LNB website. His role has been primarily coming off the bench, but Lofton got the nod in the starting rotation in Friday’s contest.
