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Pepperdine-Portland Box Score

MALIBU, Calif. - A late five-minute stretch where the Pepperdine men's basketball team held Portland without a field goal proved to be the difference as the Waves eked out a 67-63 West Coast Conference home victory on Saturday.

Five Waves scored in double-figures as Pepperdine improved to 12-6 overall and 5-2 in the WCC. Portland fell to 11-8, 2-5. The biggest lead of the closely-contested game for either team was six points.

The Pilots led 32-31 at halftime and had a small lead for much of the second half. But after Thomas van der Mars scored with 6:53 left to put Portland ahead 50-46, it would be more than five minutes before the Pilots would get another field goal.

The Pilots were still up 52-50 with less than five minutes to play when junior forward Jett Raines (Coppell, Texas/Coppell HS) added a couple of plays to his personal highlight reel. He scored on an alley-oop dunk from sophomore guard Jeremy Major (Pasadena, Calif./Maranatha HS) to tie the game with 4:23 to play, then sank a three-pointer with 3:33 left to put the Waves up 55-52. That gave Pepperdine the lead for good in the game's 13th and final lead change.

Portland got a free throw with 3:09 left, but Raines made it a 7-1 run all by himself with two free throws with 2:33 to go. A free throw by Major with 2:05 left extended the run to 8-1 and a 58-53 Pepperdine lead.

Portland's Alec Wintering scored on a lay-up with 1:45 left to end the drought. But during that five-plus-minute stretch, the Waves held the Pilots to 0-for-5 shooting plus three turnovers.

"The difference in the game was that we got some stops," Pepperdine Coach Marty Wilson said. "And some of those led to some easy baskets or free throws. We preach to the team, let's see how many stops in a row we can get. We switched up some things defensively and tried not to let them get comfortable."

Pepperdine's lead would grow to six at 61-55 with 1:13 to play, and though Portland would close the gap to as few as two points with 23 seconds left, the Waves did just enough at the foul line, making six of eight in the final 36 seconds, to finish off the Pilots.

Freshman guard Shawn Olden (Tulsa, Okla./Union HS) led the Waves with 15 points and three steals. Major had 14 points and four assists, Raines had 13 points, junior forward Stacy Davis (Laveen, Ariz./Fairfax HS) had 11 points and six rebounds and sophomore guard Atif Russell (Katy, Texas/Seven Lakes HS) had 10 points.

Portland's Kevin Bailey led all scorers with 28 points, but he was the only Pilot in double-figures and he fouled out with 28 seconds left.

The Pilots outshot the Waves, 41.8% to 39.2% (Pepperdine actually improved to 4-2 this season when shooting below 40%) and had a 36-32 advantage on the boards. But the Waves got to the free throw line more (22 makes versus 13) and took better care of the ball (10 turnovers to 14 and a 20-12 edge in points off turnovers). Pepperdine had a season-high eight blocked shots.

Pepperdine plays its next four games on the road and will be making back-to-back trips to Northern California. First up, the Waves will be at San Francisco on Thursday (Jan. 22) at 7 p.m. and at Santa Clara on Saturday (Jan. 24) at 8 p.m. Both games will be on TheW.tv. Fans can also listen to both games via WaveCasts with Al Epstein at PepperdineSports.com.