STOCKTON, Calif. – LMU men's basketball could not overcome a double-digit first half deficit in Saturday afternoon's 78-72 loss at Pacific.
 
The Lions only led 2-0, on Cam Shelton's opening jumper. Pacific then rattled off the next nine points to take the early lead.
 
LMU's next three field goals all came from Jalin Anderson. Pacific answered Anderson's third basket with a 15-4 run to lead 28-12 with 8:09 on the clock. Anderson would finish with a team-high 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting.
 
Alex Merkviladze put an end to the run coming out of the timeout with a three-point play after getting hit on his made layup. 
 
Pacific hit a layup of their own on the other end before the Lions scored 10 unanswered to cut the deficit to just five with 4:52 remaining in the half. Keli Leaupepe hit a layup, then Merkviladze and Justin Ahrens hit back-to-back threes before Shelton closed the run with a layup of his own.
 
The Lions used a 17-6 run to close the second half to turn the 16-point deficit into a 34-29 deficit. 
 
Merkviladze continued his scoring by opening the second half with a layup to get him to double-digit. Merkviladze finished with 15 points in the game.
 
Back-to-back layups by Anderson and Lamaj Lewis brought LMU within two points, at 39-37, with 15:41 to play. The Lions had two-point deficits several more times, including at 14:08 with another Anderson layup and again at 12:58 with a layup from Merkviladze.
 
Justin Ahrens buried a triple with 10:41 to play to make it a 48-47 game before Pacific answered on the other end of the court. 
 
After the Tigers rebuilt their lead, Chance Stephens hit a three to make it a two-possession game with 1:38 on the clock, but the deficit wouldn't shrink below four from that point forward.
 
Shelton scored 14 points and led the team with four assists and three steals before fouling out.
 
Pacific shot 50 percent from the field in each half, even with the LMU defense holding the home team to 1-for-7 shooting from long range in the opening 20 minutes. LMU only hit two threes in each half and finished at 4-for-25 (16.0 percent) in the game.
 
LMU outscored Pacific 23-9 in points off turnovers and 14-6 in second chance points.
 
The Lions will play two key games next week as WCC action continues. LMU will host BYU on Thursday night for a nationally televised home game. San Francisco comes to the Bluff two days later for a Saturday night showdown.

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