Final Stats

Box Score

SAN DIEGO, California " Colbey Ross had a team-high 16 points, including a three-pointer that made it a two-point game with 2 1/2 minutes left, but the Pepperdine men's basketball team couldn't finish off the comeback and San Diego pulled off a 74-66 victory in West Coast Conference play on Saturday afternoon.

The Waves (3-11, 0-2), missing two starters once again due to injury, shot just 34.8%, while the Toreros (11-3, 2-0) hit on 43.4% of their shots, including 11 three-pointers.

BIG WAVES

• Freshman guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) led the Waves in scoring for the fourth straight game. He also had seven rebounds and six assists and made both his three-pointers
• Junior guard Eric Cooper Jr. (Ontario, Calif./St. Anthony HS/Nevada) scored 13 points with three three-pointers and had three steals before fouling out with 1:42 left.
• Sophomore forward Nolan Taylor (Keller, Texas/Keller HS) scored 12 points.
• Redshirt freshman guard Kaijae Yee-Stephens (Santa Cruz, Calif./Santa Cruz HS) missed the first 13 games of the season with a knee injury but made his season debut on his birthday, and he came off the bench to score a career-best nine points, including two three-pointers on two attempts.

KEY STATS

• San Diego entered the game as the nation's top three-point defensive team but the Waves went 7-for-17 (41.2%). Unfortunately, Pepperdine went just 16-for-50 (32.0%) on two-pointers.
• The Waves had a slight edge in turnovers (11 to 12) but the Toreros had a big advantage in points off turnovers (16 to five).
• Pepperdine had a 41-37 edge in rebounding, including 16 offensive rebounds that led to a 20-5 advantage in second-chance points.
• San Diego's Olin Carter III had seven of the team's 11 three-pointers and he scored 27 points. He was one of four Toreros to score in double-figures.

PLAY BY PLAY

The Waves scored the first four points, but the Toreros hit five of their first six shots, including four consecutive three-pointers by Carter, to go up 14-6 a little more than three minutes in.

USD took its biggest lead of the half at nine points at 21-12 and again at 24-15, but a 9-2 Pepperdine run closed the gap to two points at 26-24 with under four minutes to go. The Toreros ended the second half strong, however, and went into the break with a 38-30 lead.

San Diego's only double-digit lead came at 41-30 to start the second half, and the Waves played from behind the rest of the way. A 6-0 run, with four points by Taylor and two free throws by Darnell Dunn, did make it a one-point game at 50-49 with 10:28 left, but then the Waves wouldn't score again for 3 1/2 minutes.

The Toreros went up by as many as seven, but Ross' three-pointer made it 63-61 with 2 1/2 minutes left. Unfortunately, the Waves hit another lull, not scoring for a minute and a half as USD scored the next seven points to put the game out of reach.

NOTABLES

• For the eighth time in 14 games, the Waves were without two starters. Kameron Edwards (concussion), the Waves' leading scorer and rebounder, missed his fifth straight game. Amadi Udenyi (ankle) missed his second straight game and fourth overall.
• The Waves' total number of player-games missed due to injury is up to 35 this season. Pepperdine hasn't had its expected starting lineup available for a single game this season.
• Pepperdine had won in its previous four trips to the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

UP NEXT

Pepperdine has its first two WCC home games to start 2018 next week, beginning with #20 Gonzaga on Thursday (Jan. 4) at 8 p.m., then against San Francisco on Saturday (Jan. 6) at 1 p.m. The Gonzaga game will be shown on ESPNU and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts with Al Epstein.