Pepperdine women’s basketball has proven to be consistently inconsistent this season never winning or losing more than two games in a row. The intensity the Waves displayed against San Francisco and Santa Clara looked promising in regards to the rest of the season. Unfortunately the team did not carry the momentum as it lost 68-44 against the Loyola Marymount Lions (15-7 5-3) on Saturday afternoon at the Gersten Pavilion.
As usual the Waves beat themselves with a slow start.
“We definitely did not think that we would come out as flat as we did said Head Coach Julie Rousseau. LMU had revenge on their mind and played a great game.”
Freshman guard Jazmine Jackson scored a career-high of 17 points on 50 percent shooting but that was the only positive statistic the Waves were able to come away with.
The Waves shot 29 percent from the field which was easily trounced by the Lion’s 39 percent. The Waves currently ranked sixth in the nation in steals continue to have problems converting their steals into layups scoring only two points off of 10 LMU turnovers. Likewise the Lions managed to score 14 points off of 12 Pepperdine turnovers.
“Our turnovers were bad our shooting was poor but it started with defense Rousseau said. One thing we need to work on is making sure we always have strong defense.”
But the Waves surrendered a 17-2 scoring run to the Lions in the first seven minutes of the game. The Waves responded with a 10-0 scoring run in which Jackson scored eight of those points but it did not last long as the Lions followed with another 11-2 scoring run of their own. The Waves were unable to make a dent in the Lion’s lead finishing the half down by 15 at a score of 35-20.
The second half did not get any easier. The women gave a strong performance at the end of the half but it couldn’t make up for the Waves’ slow start.
“We need to execute our offense Jackson said. Our defense was pretty good but we need to keep running our plays.”
Jackson scored the first layup of the half but the team was disappointed as the Lions went on another 17-4 scoring run. The Waves kept the Lions from any other scoring run but were never able to get one themselves. The buzzer sounded with a final score of 64-44 Lions.
Rousseau has confidence that the team can rebound from the loss though.
“I know that this is not who we are and we will bounce back Rousseau said.
In lighter news, Waves’ junior center Miranda Ayim was recently named to the CoSida/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District third team. Ayim is ranked 77th in the nation for field goal percentage at .486 and is also the leading scorer for the Waves this season with 234 points.
The Waves’ next game is tonight at 7 p.m. at Santa Clara, followed by a Saturday match-up at San Diego at 2 p.m.