The Pepperdine women’s basketball team fell to 1-2 in conference play tonight after an 80-61 loss to Gonzaga at home.
After a league win against San Diego and a close loss on the road to Saint Mary’s over winter break the Waves were looking to get back to a winning record in the conference in tonight’s game against the visiting WCC Champion Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Although the Waves came into the night with an overall record of 29-24 against Gonzaga that precedent was not to be followed as Gonzaga won the opening tip jumped out to an early 9-0 lead and never looked back.
Junior guard Katie Menton scored first for the Waves who then managed to cut Gonzaga’s lead to six before the Bulldogs began to extend the lead again. For much of the first half the Waves were kept to the perimeter as they only scored six points to Gonzaga’s 22 in the paint.
At the halftime whistle the Bulldogs lead the Waves 45-21. Gonzaga’s success had been fueled by a very high field goal percentage — 70 percent in the first half to Pepperdine’s 23.5 percent.
Pepperdine started the second half much stronger than the first opening with nine points to Gonzaga’s four in the first 2 minutes 30 seconds. Menton began the scoring for the Waves in the second half as well with a three-pointer. She finished with 13 points second for the Waves only to junior guard Jazmine Jackson’s 18 points.
Both teams played consistently through the rest of the game. At one point the Bulldogs had stretched their lead to 35 but the Waves were only able to reign it in to 19 by the final buzzer.
Despite the fact that Pepperdine won the second half by five points Gonzaga built too strong of a lead in the first half to give the Waves a chance at coming back. As the Waves look forward to their next home game against Portland this Saturday Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. they can plan to draw on their second half strength.