STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's basketball team (2-2) captured a thrilling win at home, defeating Lamar 77-76. The Tigers improved to 4-0 over Lamar all-time enroute to their first win at the Alex G. Spanos Center this year.
 
The first half opened reminiscent of Wednesday evening, with the Tigers in a deficit. Lamar led by as many as 18 in the first half, before the Tigers rattled off a 12-2 run to enter the break down by eight. The Cardinals led 39-31 at the half. 
 
Pacific shot 42.9 percent from the floor with 12 makes in the first half, while Lamar shot 18 of 37. The Tigers made five threes through the first twenty minutes, including two with under two minutes left in the first half by freshman guard Tan Yildizoglu and redshirt junior forward Burke Smith. Senior forward Judson Martindale kicked off the run with six points, including a made three and three-point play off a fastbreak layup. 
 
The second half opened with a slow start and soon the Cardinals were back up by 14. A 14-4 run pulled the Tigers within one with less than twelve minutes remaining. Lamar fought hard to keep the Tigers at bay, but soon it was tied with 8:55 left on the clock. The Cardinals took back the momentum after a tech was called against Pacific, but it was short lived.
 
A put back by Martindale put the Tigers down four with under three left to play. Martindale scored five more points to put Pacific down by only one with 1:11 remaining. The Tiger defense was locked in through the final moments of the afternoon. They forced a travel and a jump ball with less than a minute left to go. 
 
Sophomore guard Moe Odum put up a miraculous bucket to put Pacific up 77-76 with 14 seconds left. A missed three by Lamar and a Cam Denson rebound sealed the Cardinals' fate. The Cardinals needed a miracle, but with one second to go, it wasn't in the cards. Pacific claimed the 77-76 victory.
 
Martindale led the Tigers with 15 points, shooting 6 of 12 from the floor. He dished out three assists, while recording two rebounds and a steal. Junior guard Cam Denson put up 14 points, shooting 5-7 from the floor and hitting two threes. Denson led the Tigers with six rebounds. Odum led the Tigers with eight assists, and including the game-winning go-ahead bucket, he scored 14 points.
 
Off the bench, Yildizoglu was huge for the Tigers, bringing a different energy to the floor. He scored eight points, grabbed three rebounds and a steal. Yildizoglu ended 3-4 from the floor and 1-1 from beyond the arc in 15 minutes of action. When the freshman guard was on the floor, the Tigers were +17. 
 
"I thought Tan came off the bench and gave us a tremendous burst of energy in the first half. I thought he rescued us. He was playing so hard and gave us energy and the kids responded to him," head coach Leonard Perry shared at the end of the game, "In the second half, he came in and did the same thing, gave us the same energy. He got loose balls, he got deflections, took care of the ball, he got to the bucket. He made a really big corner three to close the half. I thought he was fantastic and came through for us tonight."
 
The Tiger bench was key in the winning effort once more, outscoring the Lamar bench 25-15. Smith ended with six points, five rebounds, a block and a steal in 17 minutes of game action. 
 
Pacific shot a 53.57 field goal percentage in the second half to Lamar's 48.4 percent. The Tigers ended the afternoon shooting 48.2 percent from the floor and outscored the Cardinals 46-37 in the second half. Looking at the stat lines, it would be difficult to guess which team would end up on top, but the Tigers held on to the belief that they could win the entire time.
 
"The kids never stopped believing that we were going to win the game. Things didn't look great, we didn't shoot the ball incredibly well, we got looks, but the difference tonight was I felt like we didn't allow what was going on on the offensive end to affect how we defended down the stretch," Perry shared, "We really had to have stops. The thing I was most concerned with was that team [Lamar] had 25 offensive rebounds against the University of Texas San Antonio and I was terrified of that because they are a good offensive rebounding team. They had four at half and they finished the game with five and that's a testament to our young men. We kept believing and kept fighting."
 
To get the win took resiliency and the Tigers executed by taking things one by one. "Our kids kept getting one stop at a time and then eventually when we were getting those stops, we started to run and that's the one thing I figured out with this team is that we've got to run," Perry said, "If we are going to be good, we've got to run. Moe Odum is who he is when we get out in transition and run. The only way to do that is to get stops and we were able to do that tonight." 
 
Belief in oneself is a powerful thing and it sometimes sets up the game winner. "I thought the kids executed all the way to the very end, all the way down to the last shot, a set play we ran for Moe and he was able to make a New York City skyscraping off the glass (shot) like he was at the Rucker Park," Perry shared.
 
The Tigers return Monday night at 8 p.m. as they host North Dakota at the Alex G. Spanos Center.