STOCKTON, Calif. – Catching fire in the second half, the Pacific men's basketball program topped LMU 65-59 Wednesday at the Spanos Center to clinch its first winning season since 2019-20.
 
In a game of shooting percentages, Pacific (17-10, 8-6 WCC) shot .290 from the floor in the first half and trailed 31-25 at the break, while the Lions (13-14, 4-10 WCC) posted a .500 shooting clip. The Tigers flipped the script in the second where they shot .667 from the field and limited LMU to a .370 mark including 1-of-11 (.091) from three.
 
The turning point came early in the second half when Pacific trailed 36-30. The Tigers went on an 11-0 run as a three by senior Justin Rochelin put them up 41-36 at the 14:27 mark. Pacific never trailed the rest of the way and led by as many as 16 with 6:36 left.
 
Leading all scorers with 22 points was senior Elias Ralph. He was 10-of-16 from the field and pulled down seven rebounds.
 
Senior TJ Wainwright aided the attack with 10 points and seven rebounds. Senior Jaden Clayton dished out eight assists.
 
Pacific held a big 36-25 rebounding edge and outscored the Lions 40-26 in the paint. The Tigers outscored LMU 16-10 in bench points as freshman Jaion Pitt contributed with nine points and six rebounds.
 
The Lions, who were coming off back-to-back wins over San Francisco and San Diego, were guided by Jan Vide's 19 points. Myron Amey Jr. finished with 17 points.
 
Pacific got off to a cold start and trailed 14-8 early. The Tigers got it down to 18-17 after a hook shot by senior KC Ibekwe with 5:41 left, but the Lions pushed it back up to 26-19 at the 3:07 mark.
 
LMU's largest lead was 31-21 with 1:28 remaining. A pair of buckets by Ralph cut the deficit to 31-25 at the half.
 
Still down 36-30, field goals by Ralph, Rochelin and senior Isaac Jack tied it 36-36 with 15:58 to go. Pacific kept rolling and turned it into an 11-0 run to lead 41-36 with 14:27 left.
 
The 11-0 spurt continued into a 19-2 run after Pitt registered a bucket to up it to 49-38 with 10:42 remaining. An old-fashion three-point play by Pitt increased It to 59-43 at the 7:30 mark.
 
Pacific continued to lead by double-figures with under a minute left when LMU ended the contest on a 7-0 run, but the game was already out of reach.
 
The Tigers will remain at home Saturday when they host Saint Mary's in a 7:30 p.m. game on ESPN2.
 
NOTES
- Pacific is now 17-14 all-time at home against LMU. The teams split the season series.
 
- The Tigers improved to 11-1 at home this season. Their .917 winning percentage is their highest since 2004-05 when the team went 12-1 (.923). Pacific is 820-463 all-time at home and 357-230 in the Alex G. Spanos Center.
 
- Pacific locked up its third winning season since the program rejoined the West Coast Conference in 2013-14.
 
- Pacific has doubled its conference win total from last year. The Tigers have surpassed their overall win total by eight games and conference win total by four games from last season. It's the second year in a row under head coach Dave Smart that the Tigers have increased their win total from the year prior.
 
- The Tigers have outrebounded all 14 conference opponents this season. Pacific entered the game ranked 11th in the nation in rebounding margin with a +9.7 clip and will improve upon that mark.
 
- Pacific improved to 13-0 under Smart in two seasons when holding the opposition to under 60 points and 10-0 (5-0 WCC) this year.
 
- It marked the second time in conference this season that Pacific overcame a halftime deficit. The first was when the Tigers trailed 34-24 at home against San Diego before winning 77-70.
 
- In two seasons at Pacific, Ralph is up to 937 points. It was his 29th career 20-plus scoring game, 17th at Pacific and 10th this year. It was the third time this season that he made at least 10 field goals.
 
- Wainwright notched his 57th career double-figure scoring performance, 21st this year and sixth in a row. He was coming off a 27-point performance in a win at Pepperdine.
 
- Clayton entered the game ranked top-20 in the nation and second in the WCC in assists with 6.1 per game and distributed eight.
 
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