The Pepperdine men’s basketball team broke their eight game losing streak Saturday, Jan. 28, with a decisive victory over West Coast Conference foe Santa Clara. The Waves defeated the Broncos 74-62 at Firestone Fieldhouse led by freshman guard Jordan Baker. He led the team with 15 points and was followed by senior forward Taylor Darby, who contributed 14 points.
The final score of this match-up does not truly reflect how much Pepperdine dominated this game. Pepperdine led by as much as 19 points during this basketball game and took control early and often. Pepperdine shot an impressive 6 of 8 from three-point land and earned a commanding 35-24 rebounding edge over the Broncos’ men’s basketball team. Pepperdine started off strong led by Baker who came out aggressive and decisive. He earned a four-point play and led the Waves with their first seven points of the game.
The first half was close on the scoreboard but Pepperdine did not squander the lead. The first half did however end with a rather close score of 34-32.
The second hal
f saw senior forward Taylor Darby step up and score 12 of his 14 points in the second half. Darby showed his veteran leadership and composure in the second half helping to weather any Santa Clara efforts to subtract the lead the Waves created. Both teams came out on fire in the second half but eventually the Waves’ defense began to crunch down and forced what would end up being a season-high of 18 forced turnovers on the Santa Clara Broncos. Although Santa Clara shot a decent 47 percent from the field, the Waves held the Broncos to very few second chance opportunities thanks to their strong rebounding, dominating the second chance-scoring department 22-4.
“A high-energy game carried over from their late game effort against University of San Diego,” Head Coach Marty Wilson said.
The high-energy effort from the Waves resulted in an abundance of highlight reel plays. Including some nice finishes at the rim from several players and a rare but electrifying dunk by Jordan Baker late in the second half that got the entire Pepperdine men’s basketball team off the bench. It also cemented what would be the Waves’ second conference victory of the season and 8th victory overall.
“It was a very good collective team effort. We played with a lot of hunger and aggressiveness and that helped us to keep pushing throughout the match-up,” sophomore forward Hector Harold said.
Harold helped with this team effort when he sank a jumper during the Waves’ 9-1 second half run that helped them to extend the lead to a comfortable margin over the Santa Clara Broncos. The Broncos would go on to lose their 9th straight game and their 8th straight conference loss, falling to 8-13 on the season and 0-8 with in the West Coast Conference.
The Waves showed what they are capable of winning while providing some optimism for next season. And even gave some hope for making some noise in this years West Coast Conference tournament starting on Feb. 29th. The Waves have some tough match-ups coming up with a game at Loyola Marymount today then a prime time match-up against Gonzaga this Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.
