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SAN DIEGO – Point Loma Nazarene picked up a much-needed win in Golden Gymnasium Saturday night when they beat visiting Thompson Rivers (BC) 70-48. The Sea Lions put a stop to their three-game slide and upped their overall mark to 5-3.

Loma guard Hayden Lescult sank a 3-pointer to get scoring started. Wolfpack guard Brett Parker answered with a trey of his own, but the Sea Lions would build up an early 11-5 lead. Thompson Rivers rallied to cut the gap to two points until a PLNU run had the home team ahead by 10 midway into the half.

Point Loma's advantage would then shrink to just six points. By the break, though, the Sea Lion were up 14 points at 41-27. The Sea Lion lead grew to 20 two and half minutes into the second stanza and would grow to a game-high 27 at 8:42 after a bucket from Anthony Ussery.

The Sea Lions shot 46 percent (26-56) from the floor which included six 3-pointers. Loma also was good on 12-of-18 from the stripe and forced 23 turnovers which were converted into 22 points.

Leading the charge against the Canada-based institution was Marek Klassen, who hails from Abbotsford, B.C., 177 miles from the TRU campus. Klassen, a sophomore guard, scored 17 points, all of which came in the first half of play.

Lescault chipped in with 14 points and eight assists with Todd Campbell and Rhett Beal adding 13 and 12 points, respectively. Ussery pulled in a team-best eight rebounds and Beal swiped three steals.

Thompson Rivers was held to a 36 percentage (16-45) from the field Saturday, making just 13-of-21 from the stripe and 3-of-11 from beyond the arc. They came into the contest averaging 87 points a game.

The Wolfpack were paced by nine points from both Chas Kok and Justin King. TMU (4-4) identified the match as an exhibition.

On Monday, the Sea Lions host another Canadian squad, Trinity Western, for a 2:00 pm tilt before taking a few days off for Christmas.