Jan. 9, 2016 Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
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STOCKTON, Calif. - Leslie Lopez-Wood drained a buzzer-beating baseline three and the LMU women's basketball team completed a second-half comeback with a 63-60 victory at Pacific Saturday at the Spanos Center.
The Lions improve to 7-9 overall and 3-2 in West Coast Conference play while the Tigers fall to 9-8 overall and 2-4 in league action.
After trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half, the Lions outscored Pacific 36-22 over the final two quarters. They held the home team to just seven second-half field goals (22 percent) and 1-for-12 from three. Meanwhile, the Lions hit 44 percent from the field in the second half and went 9-of-15 from the charity stripe after hitting just 1-of-4 in the first half.
Sophie Taylor led a trio of Lions scoring in double figures, finishing with 15 points to go along with 14 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the year. Bree Alford added a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double and Deanna Johnson chipped in 12 points. Lopez-Wood finished with nine points, including a pair of triples and a 3-for-3 performance from the free-throw line.
"In the first half we played very distracted, frustrated and not together," said Head Coach Charity Elliott. "At halftime we talked about focusing on what we can control. To get in the mindset of playing calm, playing poised and playing together.
"In the second half we did a much better job of that," Elliott continued. "Everyone did their job, we stayed positive and were 100-percent supportive of each other and that was the difference. That put us in a position for Leslie to step up and hit that game-winning shot."
Trailing 38-27 at the half, the Lions came out of the locker room with a renewed sense of fire. Pacific opened with a Najah Queensland three, but free throws by Johnson and Taylor and layups by Alford and Johnson made it a seven-point game, 41-34, with 6:42 on the clock.
The Tigers pushed the lead back to nine twice as the two teams traded buckets, but Alford and Cheyanne Wallace charged a 7-0 run to bring the Lions to within two, 45-43 with just under three minutes remaining in the period. Pacific closed out the quarter on a 6-0 run, however.
Lopez-Wood opened the fourth quarter with three free throws after being fouled on a long ball attempt. Following a Desire Finnie free throw for Pacific, Taylor drained a three, Johnson hit one of two from the charity stripe and Alford scored in the paint, tying the game for just the second time, 52-52 with 7:31 remaining.
An empty possession for the Tigers put the ball back in the Lions hands and Taylor sank her second three of the game to give LMU its first lead, 55-52, since the 7:48 mark of the first period.
The Lions pushed their lead to six, 60-54 with 3:41 to play, but would commit five straight turnovers down the stretch as Pacific made one final run. With the score tied 60-60, Pacific had the first game-winning attempt, but a GeAnna Luaulu-Summers layup rimmed out and Taylor came up with the huge defensive board with eight seconds remaining.
Following a timeout to advance the ball to half court and set up a final play, Andee Velasco got the ball into Lopez-Wood's hands in the left corner and the junior drained the game-winning three as time expired.
The Lions return to Gersten Pavilion next week, hosting San Francisco on Thursday and Santa Clara on Saturday.
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