Final Stats

Box Score

PROVO, Utah - The Pepperdine women's basketball team nearly came away with an upset on the road at first-place BYU on Saturday, falling 69-64 in a thrilling West Coast Conference contest.

Pepperdine pulled to within one late in the fourth quarter, but couldn't take the lead as BYU hit just enough free throws down the stretch. The Waves fall to 5-15, 1-8 WCC and the Cougars move to 16-4, 8-1 WCC, holding onto a tie for the top spot in the conference standings.

"This game was about effort and attitude, and I thought we did well in both of those areas all the way to the end. We kept fighting all the way and stuck together," said head coach Ryan Weisenberg. "We let Kalani Purcell, who's an excellent rebounder, go nuts in the first half, but other than that I thought we did a lot right against a very good team. The rebounding was the difference probably."

After BYU went up by as much as 12 points in the first half, the Waves outscored the Cougars in both the third and fourth quarters. It was a four-point game with just under a minute to go when Mackenzi Pulsipher knocked down a three to make it 63-56 in favor of BYU. The Waves immediately answered, though, getting a quick layup by Erica Ogwumike (Cypress, Texas/Cypress Woods HS) on a beautiful feed from Keitra Wallace (Brea, Calif./Brea Olinda HS), pulling it back to a five-point game with 41.3 seconds left.

The Waves started putting BYU on the line intentionally with 25 seconds to play and answered four Cougar free throws with 3-pointers by Allie Green (Sacramento, Calif./Sacramento HS) and Paige Fecske (Studio City, Calif./Chaminade HS). Fecske's three came with six seconds left and made it a 67-64 game.

Pepperdine got the two missed free throws it needed, but an outlet pass off the rebound was stolen by BYU, essentially ending the game. Lexi Rydalch sealed it with two foul shots for the home team.

"We got a lot of good performances today," said Weisenberg. "Erica Ogwumike went out and got her points and then Olivia Ogwumike I thought had a great game defensively matched up with their best player, Lexi Rydalch. Allie was a spark off the bench, knocking down shots and playing great defense as well. And then Paige knocked down some big shots and really had that floor general presence that we are looking for."

Green cut it to a one-point deficit with 6:08 to play, knocking down a 3-pointer to force a BYU timeout. The Cougars would come back and score two-straight fast-break layups out of the timeout to push it back to a 58-53 game. Erica Ogwumike kept the Waves close, though, with a layup to make it a three-point game with just over four minutes to play.

Erica Ogwumike and Fecske each scored 16 points to lead the team. Ogwumike also had seven rebounds, while Fecske dished out a team-high four assists. Pepperdine assisted on 17 of its 23 made baskets.

In a very competitive first half, BYU was able to claw its way to a 38-28 lead thanks to five 3-pointers and a 27-16 rebounding advantage. The Waves hit 4-of-9 threes of their own, getting a pair from Erica Ogwumike, who scored 10 of her points in the first half. Purcell did the bulk of the rebounding work for BYU, grabbing 16 boards in the opening two quarters.

The Waves struck first, making their first two baskets of the game, staying within four points of BYU through the first quarter. The Cougars outscored Pepperdine 17-11 in the second period to grab a double-digit advantage at the break.

Pepperdine finished the game shooting 36.5 percent and knocked down 10-of-20 threes. The Waves also committed just 10 turnovers to their 17 assists. BYU hit eight threes in the game and got 21 points from Rydalch. Purcell finished with 16 points, 24 rebounds and eight assists.

Pepperdine will be back in action next week then they host San Diego on Thursday and BYU on Saturday. Both of those games can be seen on TheW.tv.