MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – The LMU men's basketball team flipped the script on Friday night's opening game of the 2022 Jamaica Classic. The Lions outscored Georgetown by 28 points in the second half to erase a double-digit halftime deficit and defeat the Hoyas in the opening round game. With the win, LMU advances to Sunday's Championship Game against fellow winners Wake Forest.
 
Rick Issanza scored the game's first field goal on a lob dunk thrown from Keli Leaupepe. Issanza finished 4-for-4 with eight points in the first half and finished the game in double-figures for his first time as a Lion with 10 points.
 
Despite trailing by multiple possessions early in the first half, Justin Ahrens and Chance Stephens hit back-to-back threes to push LMU ahead, 19-16, at the 10:31 mark. Georgetown took a 42-32 lead into the locker room, aided by the Hoyas perfect 14-for-14 shooting from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes.
 
In the second half, everything changed. Michael Graham converted an and-1 to start the comeback effort. The Lions cut the deficit from 10 to four in less than 30 seconds as Cam Shelton followed with a free throw and layup of his own.
 
A pair of layups by Lamaj Lewis and Leaupepe were followed by a breakaway dunk from Shelton to tie the score at 46-all with 13:36 to play. LMU was not done as Ahrens and Alex Merkviladze hit threes to extend the run to 12-0, and push the Lions ahead by half a dozen.
 
After Georgetown hit a shot to end that run, LMU rattled off the next 11 points as part of the larger 23-2 burst. In that second edition of the streak, threes came off the hands of Ahrens, Merkviladze, and Stephens, with another dunk from Issanza added in.
 
Georgetown started the game 0-for-11 from three before finally hitting their first at the 7:47 mark of the second half.
 
Michael Graham nearly had a second half only double-double as all nine of his points and seven of his nine rebounds came after intermission.
 
The Lions made nine threes in the second half on 18 attempts. In the game Ahrens hit four threes as part of his 12 points, and Leaupepe and Stephens hit three threes apiece. Leauepep led the Lions with 15 points of 5-for-6 shooting from the field and shared team-high numbers with nine rebounds.
 
Cam Shelton led the comeback charge, playing all 20 second half minutes and finishing with a line of 10, 5, and 5.
 
LMU's bench scored three times as many points than the Georgetown bench, outscoring the Hoyas 30-8 in non-starter points. All nine players to get in the game hit at least two field goals. Merkviladze added eight points with a pair of threes and Lamaj Lewis was 2-for-2 for four points.
 
These same two teams opened the 2018 Jamaica Classic as LMU erased a halftime deficit in that game as well and beat the Hoyas by double-digits.
 
Based on the result in the earlier game, the Lions will play Wake Forest in Sunday's Montego Bay Division Championship. The game will air once again on CBS Sports Network and tip at 2:30 PM local time, 11:30 AM back on the west coast.

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