Pepperdine University
Cal Poly
Waves Open Season With 77-68 Win Over Cal Poly
11/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MALIBU, California " Lamond Murray Jr. scored a game-high 23 points and Chris Reyes added a career-high 20 in his debut as the Pepperdine men's basketball team held off Cal Poly, 77-68, for a season-opening victory on Friday night in Firestone Fieldhouse.
Reyes (La Verne, Calif./Damien HS), a graduate transfer from Utah, had a previous career best of 12 points at the Division I level. He beat that with 14 points at halftime and wound up making 10 of 11 shots for the game. He also collected six rebounds, a career-best six assists and a career-high-tying two blocked shots.
Murray (Los Angeles, Calif./Bishop Montgomery HS), a senior guard who made the All-West Coast Conference second team last season, scored 14 of his 23 in the second half.
Senior guard Jeremy Major (Pasadena, Calif./Maranatha HS) hit the double-digit mark for assists for the second time in his career, coming up with 11 in all. He also moved into fourth place all-time on the Waves' career assists list. Fellow senior guard Amadi Udenyi (Oakland, Calif./De La Salle HS/St. Thomas More) had 12 points, seven assists and four steals. Combined, they had 18 assists and just one turnover.
The Waves outshot the Mustangs 50.8% to 38.3% and led for nearly the entire game.
"I love that we had 31 baskets and 25 assists," Pepperdine Coach Marty Wilson said. "We talk about playing for each other, and in spurts we did a great job with that. That's something we're going to have to do. At times we were really aggressive on offense, and we were making the right plays at the right time."
Reyes was one of five Waves to make their debut. Freshman forward Craig LeCesne (Oxie, Sweden/St. James School) contributed six points and five rebounds. Two returning big men, redshirt sophomores Ryan Keenan (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge HS) and Nate Gehring (Waukee, Iowa/Waukee HS), both set career highs with six points. Keenan earned his first career start.
Cal Poly led for a good portion of the first eight minutes. The Waves took their first lead at 13-12 after a Reyes lay-up, and didn't trail again after two free throws by Gehring made it 15-14 with 11:51 to go in the first half. A 10-0 run pushed Pepperdine's lead to 15 points, the biggest of the night, at 39-24 with 2:44 to go in the half. Cal Poly scored the half's final seven points to cut the halftime deficit to 39-31, however.
The Mustangs didn't go away in the second half and eventually tied the game at 51 with 10:54 to play on a Victor Joseph three-pointer. But the Waves reversed course by scoring the next nine points, including a pair of baskets by Murray and a three-point play by Udenyi, making it 59-51 with under eight minutes to go.
It was still a four-point game with just over two minutes left, but Murray had a 5-1 run all by himself over the next two possessions, and the Waves put the game out of reach by scoring another five straight points after that, making it 77-64 with under a minute to go.
Cal Poly got 17 points and 21 rebounds from Josh Martin, and another 17 points from Luke Meikle.
Before the game, Wilson announced that sophomore forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) suffered a fractured jaw during a scrimmage last weekend and will be out approximately six weeks. Edwards was an expected starter who is coming off a WCC All-Freshman season.
The Waves continue their three-game homestand next Tuesday (Nov. 15) against Weber State and Thursday (Nov. 17) versus Life Pacific. Both games will be at 7 p.m. and will be shown online via WaveCasts on TheW.tv.
