Pepperdine University
Weber State
Murray, Waves Rally to Edge Weber State
11/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MALIBU, California " Lamond Murray Jr. scored a career-high 33 points as the Pepperdine men's basketball team rallied to edge Weber State, 69-68, on Tuesday night in Firestone Fieldhouse.
The Waves (2-0) remained undefeated as the Wildcats (1-1) missed a contested three-point attempt just before the buzzer. Weber State, the defending Big Sky Conference champion and a 2016 NCAA Tournament team, led for 32:28 of the contest, while Pepperdine was ahead for just 3:14.
Murray (Los Angeles, Calif./Bishop Montgomery HS), a senior guard, surpassed his previous career high of 31 on a slam dunk with 2:08 to go, putting the Waves ahead 67-65. Murray scored 25 of his 33 in the second half, and had 25 of Pepperdine's 41 second-half points overall.
It stayed a two-point game until senior guard Jeremy Major (Pasadena, Calif./Maranatha HS) drove to the basket and scored with 42 seconds left, giving the Waves their biggest lead of the game at 69-65. But at the other end, Weber State's Jeremy Senglin made his sixth three-pointer of the game with 29 seconds left, cutting the deficit to one.
The Waves came up empty on their final possession, giving the Wildcats the ball back with 18 seconds left. Senglin, who finished with 29 points, had his last-gasp three-point attempt miss the mark in the final seconds.
"We needed to stay aggressive, especially with our small lineup of three point guards," Pepperdine Coach Marty Wilson said. "We made all the right plays at the right time. Lamond got cooking and we needed every one of his baskets. When he got it going, we wanted to keep feeding it to him.
"Defensively, we had to be solid. We knew where they wanted the ball to go. Amadi (Udenyi) was the key defensively. He did a good job of guarding their point guard and bothering him. Then we switched him to Senglin late. He made one tough shot, but Amadi made the last one even tougher and it didn't go."
Senior forward Chris Reyes (La Verne, Calif./Damien HS./Utah) continued his impressive start with the Waves, as the graduate transfer posted 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Weber State outshot the Waves, 53.8% to 44.6%, but the Waves had six fewer turnovers (12 to 18) and were +10 in offensive rebounds (12 to 2), leading to more scoring opportunities.
The Wildcats got off to a quick start and built nine-point leads of 11-2 and 15-6. The Waves eventually took their only lead of the first half at 28-27 on a Murray basket with 42 seconds left. Weber State went into halftime with a 29-28 advantage.
Reyes got the first basket of the second to put the Waves in front again, but Weber State scored the next four points and Pepperdine was trying to play catch-up for much of the rest of the half. The Wildcats' biggest second-half lead was eight points on several occasions, last at 59-51 with nine minutes to go. But Murray then had six points in an 8-0 run that then tied the game at 59 with six minutes left.
Weber State went back up by four at 65-61, but a three-point play by Reyes with 3:37 to go, followed by another free throw by Reyes with 3:08 left, tied the contest at 65.
The Waves wrap up their season-opening three-game homestand on Thursday (Nov. 17) against Life Pacific at 7 p.m. It will be shown online via WaveCasts on TheW.tv.
