Pepperdine University faced off with Long Beach State on Nov. 27 in Firestone Fieldhouse, dropping the game 68-53 for the Waves’ fifth consecutive loss.
The Beach started the game off hot, immediately coming onto the court, applying strong pressure, breaking up passes and winning rebounds. The Waves handled this pressure at the start, ending the first quarter only down 16-13.
“We need to be strong off the ball and keep it going,” junior forward Megan Harkey said. “We just need to take in the pressure and use it to our advantage.”
Harkey said she was upset at her team’s number of turnovers, which was 18. Long Beach State capitalized on many of these errors, as well as having ten steals to Pepperdine’s five.
“After every game, we write things on the board that we can do better or what we did bad,” Harkey said. “The first thing we’re writing down is turnovers.”
Interim Head Coach Kelsey Keizer echoed Harkey, as she said rebounds have been a repeated area of improvement for the Waves.
“We’ve had a lot of issues with turnovers in these first few games,” Keizer said. “There were moments of struggle, but I still think we saw some improvement, especially with Long Beach’s intensity.”
This intensity carried onto all areas of the game, as both teams had many fouls on their hands. The Beach collected 15 personal fouls, along with 23 fouls drawn paired with a technical foul. The Waves had 23 personal fouls and 14 fouls drawn.
The number of fouls worked against Pepperdine, allowing Long Beach State to get some easy points on free throws. The Beach converted 13 of their 20 free throw chances.
“Even towards the end, we were only down by ten, and then all of a sudden, we’re down by 20 off free throws,” Harkey said. “The cutoff is five per quarter, and we’re getting five almost every quarter. It’s just free points for them.”
These fouls disrupted Pepperdine’s style of play, knocking them down early, Keizer said.
“Four of our five starters were on the bench with two fouls,” Keizer said. “That took us out of rotation early and made things difficult.”
While the Waves saw things to work on, they also had some strong points of control throughout the game, especially on rebounds.
The Waves collected 35 rebounds throughout the match, the most of either team.
“If you don’t rebound, you’re not getting half of the game,” Harkey said. “The games like this with a transition team; they’re getting the rebound and want to go out. They want to get the rebound and push it up the court.”
Another tactic that worked for Pepperdine was their over-the-head passes. The Waves lobbed the ball to their other players and keep possession.
“We focus on it, but at the same time, we need to be smarter with it,” Harkey said. “We need to continue to make the overhead pass, but in a way, that’s on balance and under control.”
A few times throughout the game, Pepperdine strategically ran the shot clock down on their possession. While all of Firestone Fieldhouse would call out the ticking numbers, the Waves would drive for some baskets.
“We’re trying to keep the ball in our hands longer,” Keizer said. “In games with fast tempo, we want to keep the game under our tempo. We’re trying to really slow it, control it and take care of the basketball.”
Despite the disappointing result, Keizer sees improvement in her squad.
“We’re constantly learning,” Keizer said. “We’re seeing flashes and moments of success. Now, we need to stack those moments more often for a high frequency of success.”
Harkey shared these sentiments, saying that despite some disappointing results, her team is definitely getting better.
“This is a brand new team,” Harkey said. “We always ask, ‘How bad do we want it?’ We know what a losing program looks like; we want to see what a winning program looks like.”
The Waves have five more contests before beginning WCC play in January.
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Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic
Email Nina Fife: nina.fife@pepperdine.edu
