Pepperdine University
UC Santa Barbara
Waves Pick Up 66-44 Win At UC Santa Barbara
12/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's basketball team picked up a 66-44 win on the road over UC Santa Barbara on Friday, thanks to a balanced scoring attack and solid shooting night as a team.
The Waves held the Gauchos scoreless for the first 7:21 of the second half to take a commanding lead they would ride to the end and shot a season-high 48.1 percent in the game. Pepperdine had four players score in double figures.
"We really spread it around and the biggest thing tonight was we didn't rush our shots," said head coach Ryan Weisenberg, whose team moves to 4-5 on the year. "We had gotten in the habit of taking bad shots in the first five seconds the last couple games and tonight we ran our offense and stayed in control. I also thought we handled their full-court pressure well."
UCSB took an early 4-2 lead, but the Waves pulled away with a 10-0 run thanks to three straight baskets from Kelsey Brockway (Rolling Hills, Calif./Palos Verdes HS). Back-to-back threes from Keitra Wallace (Brea, Calif./Brea Olinda HS) and Bria Richardson (Hawthorne, Calif./Serra HS) would put Pepperdine up 18-6 at the 10 minute mark of the first half. The largest lead of the first half came at the 8:21 mark when Tessa Emerson (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara HS) grabbed an offensive board and put it right back to give the Waves a 28-10 advantage.
UCSB would battle back, though, outscoring the Waves 15-5 over the final eight minutes of the half. Pepperdine would still take a 33-25 lead into the break thanks to 48.3 percent shooting from the floor in the period. The Waves also came up with four threes in the half, two of which came from Wallace who had eight points before the break.
Pepperdine opened the second half on a 14-0 run before UCSB got its first shot up. The Waves got back-to-back jumpers from Allie Green (Sacramento, Calif./Sacramento HS) to take their largest lead of the game up to that point, 44-25, at the 14:26 mark. Pepperdine would go up by 22 on a pair of Green free throws shortly after. The Gauchos wouldn't score their first point of the half until the 12:39 mark.
After facing a 20-point deficit, UCSB rattled off seven straight points to get back in it. The Gauchos pulled to within 49-36, but Pepperdine answered with 11 straight, getting a steal and coast-to-coast layup from Richardson and six points from Wallace in the run. Pepperdine finished the game outscoring UCSB 17-8 to seal the victory.
Wallace led the way with 16 points in the game, followed by Richardson with 11 and Green and Brockway with 10 each. Wallace also had a team-high eight rebounds and three steals.
"I was also pleased with the fact we out-rebounded them tonight," said Weisenberg. "It was only by a couple, but that's something we have been working on so it was good to see and improvement in that area. This is a good confidence building win going forward."
The Waves owned a 35-33 edge on the boards and won the turnover battle 16-12. Pepperdine will be back in action next week when they head to Northern Arizona on Tuesday. Audio of that game will be carried live on WaveCasts.
