Final Stats

Pepperdine-Saint Mary's Box Score

MORAGA, Calif. -- Amadi Udenyi went home to Northern California to score a season-high 14 points, all in the second half, to spark the Pepperdine men's basketball team to its biggest win of the season, 69-63 at Saint Mary's in West Coast Conference action on Thursday night.

The Waves (15-10, 8-6) beat the second-place Gaels (19-4, 10-3) for the third straight time and handed Saint Mary's its first loss in 16 games at McKeon Pavilion this season. It's the first time Pepperdine has swept the regular-season series from SMC since 2002.

Pepperdine rallied from a nine-point deficit to tie the game 30-30 at halftime, and went down by seven a little more than six minutes into the second half.

Udenyi (Oakland, Calif./De La Salle HS) scored 10 points in the next five minutes, the last of which put Pepperdine ahead at 55-53 with 8:48 to play.

"I'm very proud of Amadi," Pepperdine Coach Marty Wilson said. "He carried us offensively and defensively for a number of possessions."

Tied at 59 with under five minutes to play, freshman forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) scored on a putback to put Pepperdine ahead by two with 4:47 left. A basket by senior forward Stacy Davis (Laveen, Ariz./Fairfax HS) on the next possession put the Waves ahead 63-59 with 4:12 to go.

The Gaels went nearly five minutes without a field goal before scoring with 2:46 left to make it a two-point game again. The Waves pushed the lead back to four on a jumper by junior guard Lamond Murray Jr. (Los Angeles, Calif./Bishop Montgomery HS) with 1:23 left, making it 65-61.

Both teams got defensive stops, and Saint Mary's scored again to make it a 65-63 game with 27.9 seconds left. That would be it for the Gaels, however, as Davis iced the victory with four free throws down the stretch and SMC missed its final four shots.

"This is a huge win," Wilson said. "Saint Mary's is one of the top-tier teams and to win on the road again gives us another notch. It's a big confidence builder for our team, for our program to show what we're capable of."

Saint Mary's was leading the country in field goal percentage at 51.4% but was held to a 43.5% success rate, and a 4-for-19 (21.1%) effort on three-pointers. The Waves shot 48.1% from the field (57.7% in the second half) and tied a season low with five turnovers.

For the third straight game, free throws proved to be a major difference, but this time it worked in the Waves' favor. Pepperdine went 14-for-20 from the line, while Saint Mary's was just 5-for-14.

Murray led all scorers with 16 points. Udenyi's previous season high was 10 points, and he was just two off a career high. Davis scored 13 points and moved up to second place on the Waves' all-time scoring list (he now needs just 21 more points to break the record). Senior forward Jett Raines (Coppell, Texas/Coppell HS) was the fourth Wave in double-figures with 12 points.

Pepperdine concludes this Northern California trip at Pacific on Saturday (Feb. 13) at 7 p.m. The game will be shown on TheW.tv and Pepperdine Hall of Famer Al Epstein will also have the call on WaveCasts at PepperdineSports.com.