The Lincoln men's basketball team made the quick second-half run it needed to have a chance to win Saturday.
But LeMoyne-Owen answered with a sustained run that allowed the Magicians to take over the final 10 minutes of the game to defeat the Blue Tigers 81-70 in the Lincoln Classic at Jason Gym.
"We kind of got away from a game plan standpoint of what it was we were trying to make them do defensively," Lincoln coach John Moseley said.
Jonell Burton knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner to cap a 16-3 Blue Tiger run with 10:03 remaining.
Then the Lincoln offense stalled as the Magicians outscored the Blue Tigers 16-4 in the next six and a half minutes.
Tez Ivory kept Lincoln's hopes alive with a 3 with 5:05 left to pull the Blue Tigers within a point and halted a 7-2 spurt with another long-range shot to make it 72-67 with 1:50 remaining.
Then Andrew Anderson started a 6-0 burst by floating one through the basket while another Ivory 3-pointer was all Lincoln could add the rest of the way.
Anderson, who averaged 13 points for Hyde Park out of Chicago during last year's Great 8 Classic at Fleming Fieldhouse, scored a game-high 27 points for the Magicians.
"To their credit they made shots," Moseley said. "They made some tough shots. Anderson had a tremendous game for them. That's the best I've seen him in all the games we watched in preparing for them. We knew (Devin) Booker could play after watching him yesterday."
Booker was the only other double-digit scorer for LeMoyne-Owen with 17 points.
Lincoln used 3-pointers to keep up with the Magicians in the first half.
Down by seven with 9:05 left before halftime, Grant Olsson hooked in a basket and added a 3 to pull Lincoln within two.
John Burton added a 3 with 5:03 left to make it 34-32, but the Magicians closed out the half on a 9-2 run.
With :3.2 on the clock, Booker won the battle for a loose ball after Lincoln inbounded the ball and drained a jumper while falling to the floor as the buzzer sounded.
That was one of 11 first-half turnovers for Lincoln, who allowed LeMoyne-Owen to score 15 points off turnovers.
"For us it's the matter of shooting ourselves in the foot," Moseley said. " We've just got to stop turning the ball over. It puts pressure on your defense when you turn it over."
With turnovers piling up, Zack Fields played a season-high 20 minutes at point guard, only turning it over once.
"Zack took care of the basketball," Moseley said. "That's a big part of it. You can't have a point guard turning the ball over. Zack's missed a little bit of practice here early battling some stuff, but he's back to practicing. He works hard."
Lincoln was without 6-foot-8 Terrance Smith for much of the first half because of two fouls, but he provided an inside presence for the Blue Tigers in the second half.
Smith had a pair of layups in the first four minutes of the second half, got open for a 3 to tie it at 52 with 12:32 on the clock and added another inside basket to tie it at 54 with 11:15 remaining.
"Terrance is a good player but we feel like we have a strong unit," Moseley said. "I thought we did a good job in the second half of establishing Terrance in the paint."
Smith scored 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting, scoring half of Lincoln's 16 points in the paint. He also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Olsson scored 11 points and Jonell Burton had 10.
Lincoln (2-2) split its two Lincoln Classic games. Lindenwood finished 2-0 in the Classic after defeating Lane 89-72 on Saturday.
Lincoln is back in action Monday when it plays Missouri S&T in the MIAA Challenge at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. The game is scheduled to tip off at 2 p.m.