Jan. 29, 2005
Final Stats
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Freshman Shannon Johnson made true on one of two free throws with :04.6 left in Saturday night's West Coast Conference (WCC) battle against Loyola Marymount to seal Pepperdine's 60-56 victory over the Lions at Gersten Pavilion.
Trailing by nine, 54-45, LMU's Bianca Zeimann hit a pair of free throws at the 2:06 mark. Kelsey Ball answered with two freebies of her own seconds later, keeping the Pepperdine lead at nine. Zeimann delivered on a jumper at 1:04 again inching Loyola Marymount closer. With :47.0 remaining Rachel Zeimann's jumper made the score 57-54, Pepperdine. But Syreeta Stafford, Lauren Wenski and Johnson all hit on one of two free throws inside the final 32 ticks.
Stafford led all scorers with 22 points, the first 20+ point effort of her career, while Kennedy chipped in 15. The Waves dominated the boards out-rebounding the Lions by a 43-35 margin led by Teiosha George's game-high 13.
"Winning back-to-back games to close out the first half of conference gives us a chance at a real good seed in the conference tournament," commented Head Coach Julie Rousseau. "Of course we can't look past anybody and we need to take it one game at a time. We still have some things we need to work on but I am proud of our effort tonight."
The Waves trailed by just three at the half due in large part to the hot hand of senior Stafford. The Torrance, Calif., native connected on four of six three-point attempts and had bettered her previous career-high of 15 points with 16 after the first stanza. The first half was a battle as there were three ties and five lead changes during the opening 20 minutes. LMU's Rachel Ziemann also had the shooter's touch in the first half as she made good on 4-5 trey attempts and had 14 of her team-leading 19 total points.
Kennedy connected on a trey at the 12:10 mark of the second half to pull the Waves (8-12, 4-3 WCC) even with LMU (10-10, 4-3 WCC) at 41-41. The basket came in the middle of what would prove to be a 10-2 Pepperdine run that saw the Waves take the final of eight lead changes. The Waves put distance between them and the Lions moments later with another 10-2 run which started at the 8:30 mark.
Senior forward Jennifer Lacy did not suit up for tonight's game due to undisclosed medical reasons and is listed as day-to-day.
Pepperdine will return home for the first of five WCC games at Firestone Field house in the month of February when it takes on San Francisco at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3.
