Jan. 15, 2011

Box Score

Pepperdine and Portland Box Score (January 15, 2011)

MALIBU, Calif.- Pepperdine's women's basketball team won its debut overtime contest of the season Saturday afternoon at Firestone Fieldhouse, 68-58, defeating a Portland team that came all the way back from a 10-point halftime deficit.

The Waves, however, responded with a convincing finish in the extra session, outscoring the Pilots, 16-6. The victory lifted Pepperdine's overall record to 11-7 and evened its West Coast Conference mark to 2-2, while the 9-9 Pilots remain winless vs. the WCC at 0-3.

Redshirt senior Katie Menton (Coarsegold, Calif./Yosemite HS), who led all players with 17 points, gave the Waves the lead for good with her fourth 3-point basket at the 4:16 mark of overtime (55-54) and later dropped a layup that put Pepperdine up by seven (61-54).

"That was a big shot by Katie," head coach Julie Rousseau said. "We were able to put our best defensive team out there too, which stopped a lot of their drives."

The Waves continued to pad their OT lead by making seven of their last nine foul shots. Pepperdine shot 73% from the charity stripe in sinking 19-of-26 attempts. Junior guard Lauren Bell (San Bruno, Calif./Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory) was the Waves' most frequent visitor to the foul line, scoring nine of her 14 points the hard way.

Junior forward Skye Barnett (Albuquerque, N.M./Cibola HS) also reached double figures for the Waves in posting her second double-double of the weekend. Barnett led all players with 11 boards and scored 13 points.

"That's what we need from her," Rousseau said of Barnett's performance. "If she commits to that, it will really help us."

"We wanted to win real bad and we were desperate to do it after coming off two losses," an exhausted Barnett added. "I've been struggling a lot, but it makes me feel good to help my teammates win this game."

Boosted by a 20-3 run that lasted over nine minutes, the Waves flipped a six-point first-half deficit at the 11:04 mark into an 11-point lead with 1:14 remaining. Menton scored six points during this stretch, junior guard Jazmine Jackson (Oakland, Calif./Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory) chipped in four and sophomore forward Kelsey Patrick (Mukilteo, Wash./Kamiak HS) capped it off with a 3-pointer of her own.

Patrick later converted a crucial three-point play in overtime, giving her six for the game.

Pepperdine finished the first half shooting 42.9% (12-28) from the floor and outrebounded the Pilots by nine, 21-12. Meanwhile, Portland shot 30.4% in the first half (7-23) and were led by Jessica Clemens' five points.

Then came a second half in which the Pilots slowly, but steadily, reduced a 16-point disadvantage at the 15-minute mark into a tie ball game with 55 seconds remaining in regulation. Lauren Angel was credited with the game-tying jumper, but missed a follow-up shot at the buzzer.

The 6-3 Angel finished with 11 points, but was held to just one defensive rebound as the Waves captured that category, 41-33.

"At 0-2 Portland was in a depressed state and they clearly demonstrated by their second-half comeback that they did not want to leave here 0-3," Rousseau said. "But at 1-2 coming into today, we didn't want to lose anymore either. Portland played with a lot of heart, they scouted us well, and even though we didn't execute as well as we wanted to, we held the court and played with poise at the very end."

After Portland got within one point of the lead with 10:10 in the second half, Barnett tried to stave off the Pilots singlehandedly by scoring seven points over the next five minutes. But ReZina Teclemariam countered with a 3-pointer that made it a one-possession game with 3:38 to go and Alexis Byrd later hit two clutch free throws that kept Pepperdine's collective backs firmly against the wall.

The Waves were given three more chances in regulation to put the game out of reach, but Jackson missed a jumper, Barnett missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Pilots forced one of the Waves' 25 turnovers in the final 30 seconds.

By comparison, Portland committed 22 turnovers, which the Waves converted into 18 points.

Pepperdine returns to action next Saturday, Jan. 22 for a 2 p.m. game at archrival Loyola Marymount. The Waves enter their game vs. the Lions trailing by one point, 5.0-4.0, in the 2010-11 PCH Challenge Series.