SANTA CLARA, Calif. – LMU men's basketball held a halftime lead on Thursday night against Santa Clara before the Broncos used a couple of second half runs to take the game, 65-55. The Lions brought back an extra player, with Lamaj Lewis receiving his first start of the season, to move to seven healthy scholarship players for the game.
 
LMU trailed by five less than four minutes into the game but an And-1 from Lars Thiemann at the 14:31 mark tied the game at 9-all.
 
The two sides traded layups for the next six field goals with the Lions tying the game all three times after falling behind. LMU's first lead came on a free throw by Lewis and grew to 18-15 on a jumper from Justin Wright with less than nine minutes to play in the opening half.
 
Baskets by Will Johnston, Thiemann, and Wright down the stretch of the half pushed the lead to five. LMU's largest lead of the game came off Wright's 10^th point of the opening half with 1:44 on the clock to make it a six-point advantage. Santa Clara cut it to four heading into intermission at 32-28. Johnston scored eight of his 10 in the first half.
 
Alex Merkviladze scored in the opening minutes of the second half to give LMU the 34-28 lead and match the six-point advantage of the opening half. A 5-0 run by the Broncos pulled the home team back within one before Merkviladze secured his second double-double in as many games with a three-pointer to push him to 10 and 10 at that point.
 
Santa Clara rattled off a 12-2 run to build a 45-39 lead with 9:02 remaining. Wright scored a jumper in the middle of the run and ended the run with a layup as part of his game-high 19 points. 
 
After Wright's basket at the 13:52 mark, both defenses forced their opponent to miss six consecutive field goals each.
 
Merkviladze scored at the 6:34 mark to cut the score to just four before Santa Clara answered with the next 13 unanswered points. A second And-1 from Thiemann ended the run and pushed the German center to 10 points.
 
Wright scored the game's last points with a completed And-1 with less than a minute remaining.
 
LMU shot 51.9 percent (14-for-27) in the first half but could not sustain that number, shooting 33.3 percent (10-for-30) over the final 20 minutes.
 
The Lions only made one three in each half of the game, both coming from Merkviladze.
 
The game featured six ties and six lead changes.
 
LMU will remain in Northern California ahead of Saturday night's game at Pacific.
 
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