Pepperdine Men’s Basketball fell to the Gonzaga Bulldogs 86-61 Jan. 18, at Firestone Fieldhouse. This loss puts the Waves at 9-11 on the season and 2-3 in conference play.
Despite the two teams being neck and neck in the first half, the Waves weren’t able to keep up in the second half, and they fell to the Bulldogs. Sophomore forward Jevon Porter was the leading scorer for Pepperdine with 16 points followed by junior guard Houston Mallette and freshman guard Nils Cooper with nine and seven points respectively.
“We just have to get better,” Mallette said. “We have to put two halves together. Just as a group, moving the ball more, getting more stops in the second half.”
The game started out with Gonzaga always remaining one step ahead of Pepperdine, but the Waves still found ways to keep themselves in it. Throughout the first seven minutes, Pepperdine never faced more than a four-point deficit. This was until, with a 15-13 score, the Bulldogs went on a 13-6 run to take a 28-19 lead with 6:43 left in the first half.
However, just as quickly as they fell into a deficit, Pepperdine started pulling themselves out of it. One adjustment the team made was improving their defense in the paint by doubling up on Graham Ike, Gonzaga redshirt junior forward.
“We started to green our double Ike because, if he gets that left hand, it’s really hard to stop him,” Porter said. “We had forced him to his right and then doubled him.”
From there, the Waves took off on a 13-3 run to take a 32-31 lead with 3:59 left in the half. The Bulldogs remained competitive, but a three-pointer from Mallette and sophomore guard Malik Moore came in clutch as both teams entered halftime 40-40.
“We just continued to chop wood,” Mallette said. “There’s never a lead too big that we can’t get back into the game.”
Despite the Waves’ strong performance at the end of the first half, things quickly fell apart for Pepperdine in the second half. The Waves scored just three points in the first ten minutes of the second half, as they went 1 for 13 from the field as Gonzaga took a 63-43 lead.
Head Coach Lorenzo Romar told the team to improve their rotations and move the ball more, but the team didn’t execute, which led to the large deficit, Porter said.
“On defense, he said we had to make better rotations,” Porter said. “We gotta have better focus because our rotations weren’t good. Also, on offense, we gotta get the ball moving more, swinging side to side.”
As the second half progressed, Pepperdine continued to fall behind, managing only 21 points in the second half, going 7 for 24 from the field. Eventually, the timer ran out, securing the defeat for the Waves.
Pepperdine last played Gonzaga on Jan. 4, and lost 86-60. Romar said the team tried to do a better job guarding Bulldogs in the paint but failed to execute.
“Try is a good word,” Romar said. “We tried to do a better job on them in the paint, but Graham Ike and [Braden] Huff and [Anton] Watson are just really good basketball players. They still did a good job scoring in the paint.”
The Waves’ next game is against Loyola Marymount on Jan. 20, at Firestone.
“Coming into the next game, don’t carry any of the negative energy from this game,” Porter said. “New game — lean on each other and do what we know we can do.”
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