The first halves of seasons usually end with a tough road trip nagging injuries and a real sense of where the team is headed. For the Pepperdine men’s basketball team it’s no different – the last four games in the first go-around of the West Coast Conference have been no easy task.
First up were the top four teams in the WCC including nationally ranked teams Gonzaga (No. 18) and Saint Mary’s (once No. 18 but dropped from the rankings after star guard Patty Mills’ broke his hand) and four Pepperdine losses ensued.
“That four game stretch we had in which we played the top four teams in the conference was rough said Head Coach Tom Asbury. So these games were a good chance to try and get some tough road wins.”
On Thursday Jan. 29 and Saturday Jan. 21 the task may not have been as large on paper but certainly it was in real life. Try 7-foot 310-pound real life. Try 20 points and eight rebounds real life.
The Waves squared off against the two best “classic” big men in the WCC San Francisco junior Dior Lowhorn and Santa Clara senior John Bryant with mixed results – the Waves defeated the Dons 69-67 on Thursday before falling 64-52 to the Broncos on Saturday.
In order for the Waves to defeat these teams which relied heavily on their star players they needed to shut down everyone else on the floor. But for the young Waves whose underclassmen play in more than 85 percent of the minutes the experience of going against two all-conference low-post threats and getting a victory out of it was encouraging.
On Thursday the Waves squared against a San Francisco team that lost five in a row and nine of their last 10. But the Dons were in their own War Memorial Gym and had history on their side as the Waves’ last win against USF was four years ago.Luckily for the Waves standout freshman guard Keion Bell was there.
“[Keion] just had one of those nights where the ball was dropping and his defense was created more opportunities for him offensively Asbury said.
Limited to only 27 minutes because of foul trouble, Bell played by far the best game of any WCC freshman so far this season, setting a career-high with 32 points on 13-of-14 shooting to lead the Waves to a 69-67 victory in downtown San Francisco.Thanks to a couple early steals from Bell and a stifling defense against USF’s star Lowhorn, the Waves jumped out to a 16-3 lead within the first four minutes of play.
Our defense created a lot of offensive opportunities Asbury said. We were real active on Lowhorn and got our hand in the passing lanes which created a lot of turnovers.”
The Dons cut into the lead and went into the locker room down by one at halftime 31-30 with Lowhorn the WCC’s leading scorer canning 12 points before the break.
The two teams constantly traded off the score after halftime with five lead changes in the second half. However the Waves were never down by less than two the entire half and a mid-range baseline jumper from sophomore swingman Mychel Thompson with 57 seconds left kept the game out of reach for the Dons. And Lowhorn despite being double-teamed all game had 28 points and 10 rebounds.
“We did a good job on Lowhorn the first couple minutes but he got away as pure scorers often do Asbury said. So we decided to just let him play keep him in check and shut down all their other offensive opportunities.”
Senior guard Ryan Holmes continued to battle back from a mid-season knee injury scoring nine points and dishing out nine assists in his insertion back into the starting lineup.
On Saturday against Santa Clara the Waves could not find a successful combination of lockdown defense or capitalize on turnovers like they did against the Dons.
Broncos senior center John Bryant the leading rebounder in the nation scored 19 points and 7-for-9 shooting and grabbed 17 rebounds as Santa Clara won its fourth straight game over the Waves 64-52. The Broncos (11-13 3-4 WCC) took over sole possession of fifth place in the WCC over the Waves (5-18 2-5 WCC) who are now solely in sixth.
Pepperdine tried a packed-in 2-3 zone to counter the giant 6-foot-11 275-pound inside force of Bryant but the Broncos hit a team-record 12 three pointers (all from their starting guards).
“Our team had no matchup for Bryant Asbury said. He is the leading rebounder in the nation so he isn’t just hurting us. We tried to pack in our defense but Santa Clara just took it to us behind the arc.”
The Waves tossed sophomore forward and walk-on Gus Clardy into the lineup to handle the much bigger Bryant. Clardy held him in check for the career-high 26 minutes he played. Clardy also scored four points and pulled down five boards.
“Clardy did a great job on Bryant Asbury said. He is able to defend bigger matchups because he is more physical than our other big men.”
Despite a solid 46 percent shooting in the first half the Waves felt the fatigue from the thrilling and exhausting victory over the Dons two nights before as they shot only 31 percent in the second half. Thompson and Bell the focal points of the offense were held to only five second-half points combined.
After the grueling stretch of the games the Waves have had to endure the past month the promise of no game on Thursday and the rivalry game against a depleted and almost winless Loyola Marymount team (1-22 0-7 WCC) comes as a big breath of relief.
“It is good to have a few extra days to work on some little nuisances with our team play here and there Asbury said. [Pepperdine] and LMU both know this might be their only shot to win a conference game or a game for the rest of the season for that matter on Saturday. You can throw the records out considering neither of them are good.”
The Waves play exactly 20 miles down the Pacific Coast Highway at Gersten Pavillion on Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Lions. Pepperdine has won six straight games and seven of the last eight against the Lions.