MALIBU, Calif. – The Pepperdine women's basketball team opened up conference play in a big way on Friday night, defeating Portland 83-68 at home in Firestone Fieldhouse. Big nights from Yasmine Robinson-Bacote, Rose Pflug and Barbara Sitanggan propelled the Waves to their first West Coast Conference victory of the year.

The Waves (7-4, 1-0) led for all but two total minutes, and never let the Pilots (8-4, 0-1) retake the lead after 7:47 left in the first quarter.

BIG WAVES

• Yasmine Robinson-Bacote (Hillside, N.J./Hillside HS) had a team-leading 22 points, and added 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the year, leading the Waves.
• Rose Pflug (Portland, Oregon/Sunset HS) had a season-high 17 points, shooting 7-15 including 3-7 from beyond the arc.
• Barbara Sitanggan (Fullerton, Calif./Troy HS) had 16 points and five assists, shooting 7-8 from the free throw line. She also led the team with five assists.

KEY STATS

• The Waves had just seven turnovers compared to the Pilots' 20, which resulted in a points off turnovers margin of 21-1 in favor of Pepperdine.
• Pepperdine also controlled second-chance points, scoring 18 to the Pilots' four.

GAME RECAP
The Pilots got on the board first, but the Waves came back in a big way, going on a 10-0 run in the first quarter, giving them a 14-6 lead halfway through the first. The Waves kept up the scoring for the rest of the period, ending the first with a 28-18 lead thanks in part to 11 points from Robinson-Bacote.

Pepperdine kept moving along in the second quarter, going on another big scoring run, this time an 11-0 run halfway through the quarter. The Waves took a 17 point lead with 4:22 left in the half, their largest of the game. Portland scored the final six points of the half, but the Waves led 43-31 at halftime.

Portland came out of the halftime break charging, pulling within as few as three points, the closest the Pilots came to retaking the lead. The Pilots outscored the Waves 26-19 in the quarter, but the Waves still lead 62-57 going into the final ten minutes of play.

After trading buckets in the first minute of the fourth quarter, the Waves stepped it up on both offense and defense, going on a 15-0 run from 5:42 left in the quarter until there were 44 seconds left in the game, equaling the largest lead of the game at 17 points before the Pilots scored again. The Waves sealed the victory with a three-pointer, and defeated the Pilots by 14 points for the first WCC victory of the year.

UP NEXT

The Waves play host to #20 Gonzaga on Monday, December 31st at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs are currently at the top of the conference standings, and were unanimously picked to win the conference before the season started. Tip-off is scheduled for noon.