Impatient people shield your eyes; Pepperdine is the turtle in this story.
More often than not slow starts have doomed the men’s basketball team this season as was the case during the weekend’s two-game home stand at Firestone Fieldhouse in West Coast Conference play.
The Waves (4-17 1-4) lost their fifteenth straight contest to No.-20 Gonzaga (14-4 5-0) Thursday 89-63 in front of 2342 orange out fans.
The players showed some true pride against their rival. After falling behind 17-0 within the first six minutes of the game they outscored the Bulldogs the rest of the way by three (69-66).
“The way we have been starting games off hurts us big time said freshman guard Keion Bell. We haven’t experienced playing at this level right at tipoff. Throwing the first punch you know? Once we start playing for awhile we realize it’s just basketball and not a war zone out there.”
Bell showed that the preconference buzz was worth the hype coming up big for the Waves with his first-ever double-double by compiling 19 points 12 rebounds six rebounds and a pair of steals.
Gonzaga senior forward Josh Heytvelt continued his dominance over the Waves leading the way for Gonzaga early on scoring the first nine points and finishing with 25. In the five games he has started against the Waves Heytvelt has averaged 18 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
Junior swingman Matt Bouldin also collected his first double-double for the Bulldogs scoring 14 points and dishing out 10 assists for the Zags. Sophomore forward Austin Daye filled the stat sheet as well with 16 points 10 rebounds and an eye-opening five blocks.
After the initial shock of being down 17 settled in Bell and senior guard Mike Hornbuckle looked to catch the Zags off-guard moving to a more fast-paced style of play that produced 20 fast-break points.
“Coaches have been on us (the guards) about rebounding because we can just get the ball out quick on the fast break which leads to more opportunities said Bell.
The Waves started the second half on an 8-0 run, with three pointers by Bell and Hornbuckle, and a jumper by Bell to cut the lead to 11, 45-34, with 18:30 remaining.
But the Waves continued to shoot poorly throughout the game, connecting on only 36.6 percent. Gonzaga senior forward Micah Downs broke the spirit of the Fieldhouse with a rim-rattling alley-oop dunk off an inbounds pass with two minutes remaining, and the more experienced Bulldog team kept and built on their lead.
Saturday the Waves hosted a vastly improved Portland team. The Pilots (13-7, 4-1), who had a stunning season-opening win against the Pac-10 leading Washington Huskies, came in tied for second in the WCC.
Thanks to another poor shooting effort by the Waves, they kept it that way – their fourth straight win in Malibu, 73-58.It was much like the beginning of the Gonzaga game in which we had some early open looks but couldn’t capitalize said Bell. The energy level was there against Portland but we just couldn’t hit shots.”
The Waves had another sub-40 percent shooting game dropping their season total to 39.1 percent second worst in the WCC only to Loyola Marymount.
Pepperdine once again fell behind early creating a 12-2 deficit to mount only four minutes into the game.
The Waves cut the lead to three points twice the last at 21-18 with eight minutes left in the first half. But the Pilots used senior guard Nik Ravio as their catalyst on a 23-5 run to close out the half up 21 points 44-23.
Ravio had 16 first-half points and led three Pilots in double figures with 20 for the game. Sophomore guard Jared Stohl had 13 points on four of eight shooting.
It was an overall sloppy affair both teams had more turnovers than assists and the Pilots didn’t score during the last six minutes of the game.
The Waves head back to the Bay Area after being there only two weeks ago to take on San Francisco tonight and Santa Clara Saturday.
Despite having a large task in playing No.-22 Saint Mary’s and No.-20 Gonzaga back-to-back recently this weekend looms large as the Waves face off against the two best big men in the conference.
San Francisco junior Dior Lowhorn the top scorer in the WCC averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds against the Waves last season which gave former head coach Eddie Sutton his 800th career win in Malibu. This season Lowhorn has stepped out behind the arc hitting 47.2 percent of his three-point attempts.Santa Clara senior center John Bryant has always saved his best games against Pepperdine averaging a Heytvelt-like 18.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per contest.
It will be interesting to see how the Waves deal with such sizeable inside presences seeing as they only have freshmen Corbin Moore and Andy Shannon to roam the paint.
“We have been switching and fronting all screens in practice said Bell. It takes away their post presence so they have to make the other four on the floor hit shots.”