DAVID NAKAGAMI
Staff Writer
The Pepperdine men’s basketball team continue to fulfill one of the most well-known sports prophesies. Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
The Waves were on the verge of making winning a pattern as they put their two-game win streak on the line in Saturday’s contest at Jenny Craig Pavilion against the University of San Diego Toreros. Unfortunately, the Waves lost twice this weekend on the road.
The first half was a battle, with the lead changing hands several times. With four-and-a-half minutes left in the half, San Diego took the lead and extended it to five points going into halftime.
A key to the Torero’s lead was its ability to capitalize off of critical Wave mistakes. Pepperdine allowed San Diego to score 11 points off of turnovers in the first half. Also, San Diego shot higher percentages in the free throw, field goal and three-point categories.
The second half did not prove to be much better for the Waves. They were outscored 46-38 and out-hustled 5-11 on second-chance points. The mistakes proved too costly for the Waves, as time expired with a score of 84-71. The win gave the Toreros a 5-3 WCC record. More significantly, the win snapped the Waves’ win streak and dropped their conference record to 3-5.
Toreros center Nick Lewis lit up the Waves defense for 30 points on nine of 17 shooting. Lewis also connected on four of six three-point shots and snatched six rebounds. His efforts not only helped fill up the stat sheet, but contributed to a San Diego attack that shot an even 50 percent from the field (25 out of 50) and 42 percent (8 out of 19) from behind the arc.
The lone bright spot in an otherwise disappointing loss to San Diego was Pepperdine’s bench. With freshman Mike Gerrity, Pepperdine’s leading scorer at 14.8 ppg and steals leader with 1.9 spg, unable to participate in the game due to a stress reaction in his left ankle, the minutes were distributed to other players. Its supporting cast scored 38 points, accounting for 54 percent of the 71 scored in the game. Freshman forward Willie Galick scored a team-high 17 points off the pine, shooting six for nine from the floor and a perfect two for two from downtown to go with six rebounds.
On Monday night, the visiting Waves dueled host San Francisco in another WCC thriller. With Gerrity back at the helm, the game seemed to be in control as the Waves jumped out to 26-23 lead at halftime.
The second half was a see-saw struggle, with the score tied six times. The Dons were able to take the lead with three free throws made in the last 20 seconds of regulation. In a last-second attempt, junior big man Derick Grubb shot a three ball, only to have it bounce off the rim as the final buzzer sounded.
The Dons’ top five minute-getters proved too much to handle. They combined for 62 of the team’s 66 points, 27 of 35 rebounds, all five three-point makes and all but one assist.
Statistically, the Waves and the Dons were neck-and-neck. In some aspects, like field goal percentage, Pepperdine (45.8 percent) even beat out San Francisco (41.1 percent). While these similarities reflect the back-and-forth nature of the game, it ultimately came down to who got in the last punch. In this unfortunate circumstance, the Dons were able to land the last blow, pushing their conference record over .500 (5-4). The loss put the Waves at 3-6 against conference foes, sixth place of the eight teams in the West Coast Conference.
Senior guard Tashaan Forehan-Kelly had another strong showing, scoring a game-high 22 points on five-of-11 from the field and 11-of-12 free throw attempts to go along with nine rebounds. The Waves also received 11 points and four boards from feisty freshman forward Chris Oakes. After missing a game, Gerrity played 31 minutes, scoring 10 points.
“We play to win. We’re going to put the two losses behind us and do our best to win at LMU,” said Gerrity, who still wears a protective boot. Perhaps by putting the losses behind them, winning can again become a habit.
The Waves finish their current road trip Saturday at LMU. The game will be televised on CSTV, with tip-off scheduled at 7 p.m.
02-09-2006
