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Box Score 

MALIBU, California – Colbey Ross sent a game to overtime for the second time in 15 days, though the Pepperdine men’s basketball team would end up losing to BYU, 75-70, despite a tremendous effort on Thursday night in West Coast Conference play.

Ross’ driving lay-up with seven seconds left in regulation tied the contest at 64, and BYU (21-7, 10-5) missed on a shot just before the buzzer. In overtime, the Waves (4-23, 1-14) had a late three-point attempt with a chance to tie, but missed, and BYU finished the game with two free throws with two seconds left.

BIG WAVES

• Freshman guard Trae Berhow (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS) led the Waves with 12 points and he also had six rebounds before fouling out in overtime.
• Freshman guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) had 11 points and five assists. His three-pointer near the end of the Portland game on February 1 also sent that game to overtime.
• Sophomore forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) finished with 10 points but fouled out in the final minute of regulation.
• Senior center Matthew Atewe (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Washington) scored eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
• Junior forward Darnell Dunn (Kinston, N.C./Kinston HS/Miami Dade JC) had 10 points and five rebounds.
• Freshman guard Jade’ Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame) became the first Wave since 2013 to record five steals in a game. He also had five points, four rebounds and four assists.

KEY STATS

• BYU finished with a 46.3% to 41.3% edge in shooting. In OT, the Cougars went 3-for-4 from the field (and 5-for-5 from the line) to the Waves’ 2-for-7.
• Both teams made six three-pointers.
• The Cougars had the edge making it to the foul line, going 19-for-25 to 12-for-17 for the Waves.
• Pepperdine had a 37-33 edge in rebounding (11-6 on the offensive end) but the Cougars had a 7-2 advantage in second-chance points.
• BYU got 25 points from Elijah Bryant and 18 from Yoeli Childs.

PLAY BY PLAY

The Cougars took a couple of nine-point leads in the first half, but the Waves battles back and took a 33-32 lead on a five-point play that featured a three-pointer by Ross and two free throws by Smith as he was fouled during the shot. Ross then hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the half to put Pepperdine in front 36-34 at the break.

The Waves led for a fair portion of the second half, but never by more than four points. There were five ties and nine lead changes in the second half. TJ Haws put BYU in front 63-62 with 50 seconds left, and Elijah Bryant made one of two free throws with 16 seconds left. Ross drove to the basket to tie game with 7.6 seconds left, and BYU missed on a lay-up attempt to close out regulation.

Pepperdine only took one lead in OT, at 68-66 with 2 1/2 minutes left after a basket by Dunn. BYU’s Bryant connected on a three-point play with 55 seconds left, putting BYU ahead 71-68. The Waves’ Eric Cooper Jr. got to the basket and scored with 38 seconds left, but Bryant got another basket with 12 seconds left, making it 73-70.

The Waves drew up a play in a timeout and got off a good-looking three-point attempt, but it was off the mark, and the Cougars iced the win with two free throws with two seconds left.

NOTABLES

• Per the usual, two players were out with Harrison Meads (concussion) and Nolan Taylor (season-ending shoulder surgery) on the sidelines. This was the 20th time in 27 games that the Waves have had multiple key rotation players out.
• BYU had lost in its previous four visits to Firestone Fieldhouse, last winning here in 2013.
• The Waves are 0-2 in overtime this year and have lost their last three OT games overall.

HIGHLIGHTS

UP NEXT

The Waves visit #9 Gonzaga on Saturday (Feb. 17) at 5 p.m. It will be shown locally on Spectrum SportsNet and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts with Al Epstein on the call at PepperdineWaves.com.