Men's Basketball Falls at Home to Sacramento State, 77-72

Saturday, November 23

Malibu, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

3-3

Sacramento State

4-0

Team	1	2	F
Sacramento State	23	54	77
Pepperdine	34	38	72

Photo by: Martin A. Folb

Men's Basketball Falls at Home to Sacramento State, 77-72

11/23/2019 9:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Box Score Photo Gallery

By: by Athletic Communications

MALIBU, California – Sacramento State, one of the nation's top defensive teams, locked down the Pepperdine men's basketball team for most of the second half and the result was a 77-72 victory for the visiting Hornets on Saturday night.

The Waves (3-3) took an 11-point lead at halftime at 34-23 but only scored 15 points in the next 18 minutes against the Hornets (4-0), who entered the game #2 in the country in scoring defense.

BIG WAVES

Senior forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had a team-high 20 points along with eight rebounds. He's scored 20 or more in four of the last five games.
Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) had 18 points, six assists and four rebounds.
Sophomore forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) got his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. He also had three blocked shots.

KEY STATS

The Waves shot 39.7% for the game (35.7% in the second half). Sacramento State was at 42.9% for the game (51.7% in the second half).
Pepperdine committed 13 of its 17 turnovers in the second half. The Hornets committed 16 turnovers total but had a 22-9 edge in points off turnovers.
The Waves actually shot 47.1% (8-for-17) on three-pointers but were at just 36.6% from inside the arc.
Sacramento State got 23 points from Izayah Mauriohooho-Le'afa, one of four Hornets to finish in double-figures.

PLAY BY PLAY

The Waves got off to a bit of a slow start, getting a basket on their first possession but not getting another field goal for about 5 1/2 minutes. But the Hornets were unable to capitalize and only took a couple of four-point leads. Back-to-back three-pointers by Kessler Edwards and Ross put the Waves in front 13-10 with 12:44 left in the half. A 6-0 run, finished off by a Kessler Edwards dunk, extended the lead to 19-12 with 7 1/2 minutes left.

Ross and sophomore guard Darryl Polk Jr. (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS) hit three-pointers to make it 28-19 with 2:41 left, and Ross scored on a lay-up just before the halftime buzzer to give the Waves' their first double-digit lead and a 34-23 advantage at the break.

Sacramento State chipped away at the lead for a while, and then things fell apart for Pepperdine midway through the second half when the Waves went scoreless for nearly five minutes. A 15-0 run put the Hornets ahead 50-42 with 7:24 left.

It was just a four-point Hornets lead at 53-49 with under five minutes to play, but Sacramento State essentially put the game away with an 11-0 run over the next three minutes.

After scoring 15 points in the first 18 minutes of the second half, the Waves scored 23 points in the final two minutes, but Sacramento State went 13-for-18 from the free throw line in that time, and Pepperdine could only get the deficit from 15 down to five when the final buzzer sounded.

NOTABLES

This was the first meeting between Pepperdine and Sacramento State since January 1969.
With six assists tonight, Ross raised his career total to 460. He's second all-time at Pepperdine and is now just 34 behind Jeremy Major's school record of 494.

UP NEXT

Pepperdine next plays in the Wooden Legacy at the Anaheim Arena over Thanksgiving weekend. The Waves' first-round game is against #14 Arizona on Thursday (Nov. 28) at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. Fans can also listen to WaveCasts with Al Epstein on the call at PepperdineWaves.com.