Final Stats

Box Score

PORTLAND, Oregon -- The short-handed Pepperdine men's basketball team suffered through its coldest-shooting night of the season, particularly at the start, and couldn't ever quite catch up in a 73-60 loss at Portland on Saturday in West Coast Conference play.

Pepperdine (4-10, 0-2) made two of its first 18 attempts and finished at a season-low 30.6% shooting for the game. The Pilots (9-5, 2-0) led by 11 late in the first half and eight at halftime, though the Waves would later make it a two-point game before Portland pulled away.

Senior guard Lamond Murray Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif./Bishop Montgomery HS) led the Waves with 14 points. He was followed by senior forward Chris Reyes (La Verne, Calif./Damien HS/Utah) with 12 points and senior guard Jeremy Major (Pasadena, Calif./Maranatha HS) with 10. Freshman Elijah Lee (Houston, Texas/HCYA Warriors) matched his season high of nine points.

The Waves committed a season-low seven turnovers and forced 14, leading to a 23-7 advantage in points off turnovers, but Portland offset that by shooting 50.0% for the game and making 10 three-pointers.

Pepperdine made just one of its first 11 shots in falling behind 11-3 more than six minutes in. It was 2-for-18 after 13 minutes, leading to a 19-9 deficit.

The Waves closed the gap to five at 19-14, but Portland would lead by as many as 11 points at 30-19 before going into halftime with a 31-23 advantage.

Pepperdine shot 7-for-30 (23.3%) in the first half, while Portland was at 42.3%. Freshmen scored 16 of Pepperdine's 23 first-half points, including the first 11 of the game.

Things turned around a bit early in the second half. Murray concluded a 7-0 run with a three-pointer to pull the Waves within four points at 34-30. Major sank a three-pointer and Murray got a steal and lay-up to make it a two-point game at 37-35 with 16 1/2 minutes left.

But Portland responded with a three-pointer, and on two other occasions when the Waves got within three points, Portland scored immediately thereafter. It was still a four-point margin at 54-50 with under eight minutes to go, but the Pilots then scored seven straight points. After going up 64-54 with 4:18 left, Portland kept the margin in double-digits the rest of the way.

The Waves raised their shooting percentage to 37.5% in the second half, but the Pilots were at 58.3% after the break.

Portland's Alec Wintering led all players with 23 points and eight assists.

Pepperdine was again without two expected starters. The Waves have yet to win since losing senior point guard Amadi Udenyi (Oakland, Calif./De La Salle HS) for the season to a torn Achilles tendon on November 27. Sophomore forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) has also not returned since suffering a fractured jaw in the preseason.

After a month of road games, the Waves finally return to Firestone Fieldhouse next weekend for a pair of contests. Pepperdine hosts rival Loyola Marymount in a Wells Fargo PCH Cup battle on Thursday (January 5) at 7 p.m., then hosts San Diego on Saturday (January 7) at 1 p.m. Fans can listen to both games via WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com with Al Epstein. The LMU game will be shown on TheW.tv and the San Diego contest is the WCC Game of the Week and will be televised locally by Spectrum SportsNet.