LOS ANGELES – LMU dressed six healthy scholarship players on Saturday night in a 72-63 loss to Pepperdine. The Lions played four players for 37 and a half or more minutes in defeat.
 
Lars Thiemann scored LMU's first two field goals out of the gate as the Lions jumped ahead to a 6-2 lead.

Alex Merkviladze converted an and-1 less than five minutes into play to give LMU the first five-point lead of the half and knocked down a triple less than a minute later to bring the advantage back to five. Merkviladze scored his ninth, tenth, and 11^th points of the first half at the 6:16 mark with another three-pointer to bring take a two-point game back to five and shared game-high numbers with 17 points to go along with his nine rebounds.
 
Pepperdine used a 13-5 run late in the half to take their first lead, with only a Justin Wright three and a Justice Hill jumper the only LMU points over that six-plus minute stretch. Hill beat the buzzer going into halftime to make it a one-point deficit at intermission, 30-29.
 
Kevin Carney came into the game off the bench and stripped the ball for his first career steal before the under four media timeout.
 
The Waves opened the second half with the first nine points to build their first double-digit lead. 
 
The Lions cut it to single digits a handful of times as Will Johnston scored 10 of his 12 in the second half, and Hill added seven more after intermission to bring his total to 13 and a team-high five assists.
 
Wright added 11 in his return to the starting lineup.
 
Michael Graham grabbed seven rebounds, with four coming off the offensive glass.
 
The Lions will return to Gersten Pavilion for two key home games over the next week. LMU hosts Gonzaga on Thursday at 6:00 PM on CBS Sports Network, then follow with a Saturday night home game against San Francisco, also at 6:00 PM.
 
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