LOS ANGELES, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team put a scare into USC and
Colbey Ross had another monster game with a career-high 38 points, but the unbeaten Trojans managed to post a 91-84 victory at the Galen Center on Tuesday night.
The Waves (3-2) jumped out to a 10-point lead a little more than eight minutes into the first half, but the Trojans (5-0) went up 44-37 at halftime. USC led by as many as 12 in the second half, though Pepperdine made it a three-point game with two minutes to play before the Trojans pulled out the win.
BIG WAVES
- Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) hit the 30-point mark for the second time in his career, going 13-for-20 from the field, 6-for-10 on three-pointers and 6-for-8 from the free throw line. He also had team highs of six rebounds, three assists and three steals in 36 minutes. Twenty-two points came in the second half. His previous career high was 36 set against Pacific last season.
- Senior forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) scored 18 points and had five rebounds.
- Junior guard Skylar Chavez (Woodacre, Calif./Drake HS/Santa Rosa JC) scored 10 points and had five rebounds.
- Sophomore guard Darryl Polk Jr. (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS) scored eight points on 4-for-4 shooting.
KEY STATS
- Overall shooting was close, with USC at 47.5% and Pepperdine at 46.9%
- But, the Trojans got to the free throw line nearly twice as much as the Waves, and went 28-for-34 compared to Pepperdine's 15-for-18.
- USC's Onyeka Okongwu, one of the nation's top freshmen, scored 33 points and made 17 of 21 free throws.
PLAY BY PLAY
USC led early at 10-6, but the Waves went on an 11-0 run to go ahead 17-11, and pushed the run to 15-1 to take a 10-point lead at 21-11 with under 12 minutes to play in the first half. Pepperdine held USC without a field goal for nearly five minutes.
It was still a 10-point game at 25-15 with 10 minutes to go, but the Trojans eventually regained the lead at 32-31. After Ross made two free throws to put the Waves back in front, USC ended the half on a 12-4 run to go into the break with a 44-37 advantage.
Ross scored the Waves' final 12 points of the first half and had 16 at the break.
USC pushed the lead to its biggest of the game at 73-61 with 9 1/2 minutes to play. But the Waves immediately responded with an 8-0 run, four of them by Ross, and kept USC scoreless for nearly five minutes. That cut the lead to 73-69 with five minutes to go.
USC got the lead back up to nine at 78-69 with 3:43 left, but Chavez, Ross and Edwards made three-pointers in a 9-3 run. Edwards' three made the score 81-78 with 2:14 to play.
But the Trojans would take advantage of a couple of turnovers and score the next six points, pushing the lead back up to nine at 87-78 with a minute to go.
NOTABLES
- The Waves are now 0-2 against the Pac-12 this season but 3-0 against everyone else.
- Ross had his streak of consecutive made free throws end at 32 – the second-longest in school history, two shy of Stacy Davis' school record of 34.
- With three assists tonight, Ross raised his career total to 454. He's second all-time at Pepperdine and is now just 40 behind Jeremy Major's school record of 494.
- USC now leads the all-time series 6-2.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine is in a stretch where six of seven games will be away from home, but this Saturday (Nov. 23) is the lone game in Malibu when the Waves take on Sacramento State at 7 p.m. Fans can watch on WaveCasts via the WCC Network with Al Epstein on the call.
