ANAHEIM, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team nearly took down #14 Arizona in an epic Thanksgiving shootout that saw 24 lead changes, but the Wildcats hit the winner with two seconds left for a 93-91 victory in a first-round Wooden Legacy game on Thursday night.
The Waves (3-4) battled back from a 12-point second-half deficit to the take the lead in the final minutes.
Colbey Ross tied the contest with a tough floater with seven seconds remaining, but Arizona's Nico Mannion won it with a runner with two seconds left. A half-court heave by Ross at the buzzer was off the mark.
BIG WAVES
- Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) continued his outstanding play against the Pac-12 with 20 points (16 in the first half) and nine assists. He previously had 19 points against Cal and 38 against USC.
- Senior forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had a team-high 21 points, his fifth time in the last six games scoring 20 or more.
- Junior guard Skylar Chavez (Woodacre, Calif./Drake HS/Santa Rosa JC) had a season-high 20 points on 5-for-7 three-point shooting.
- Junior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) had season highs of 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
- Sophomore forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) scored 15 points.
KEY STATS
- The Waves shot a season-high 50.8% from the field, but Arizona finished at 60.7% shooting.
- Pepperdine made up the difference by making 13 three-pointers on 27 attempts, while Arizona was 11-for-20. At the free throw line, the Waves were 18-for-19 compared to the Wildcats' 14-for-24.
- All five Pepperdine starters were in double-figures but the bench did not score.
- Arizona's Josh Green scored a game-high 24 points and Mannion had 16 points and 11 assists.
PLAY BY PLAY
There were 15 total lead changes in the first half and for the first 17 minutes, neither team took a lead bigger than three points. Arizona finally broke that by going up by five at 40-35, but the Waves came right back with a 7-0 run. The game was tied at 42 at halftime. The Waves led for nearly 11 minutes in the first half, while the Wildcats were in the lead for about 5 1/2 minutes.
The Waves led briefly at the start of the second half, but Arizona eventually went up by 12 at 69-57 with 10 1/2 minutes to play. Undeterred, Pepperdine came back with the next nine points, six of them by Chavez, to make it 69-66 with under nine minutes left.
The Waves tied it at 74 on a
Kameron Edwards fast-break slam dunk, and took back the lead at 77-76 with 6:19 left on a Chavez three-pointer.
Kameron Edwards scored four straight points to put the Waves ahead 81-79 with five minutes left. Pepperdine's last lead would come via a
Kessler Edwards three from left corner, making it 84-83 with 3 1/2 minutes to go.
Dylan Smith's third three-pointer in two minutes gave the Wildcats an 89-86 lead, but Chavez answered with a three of his own to tie the game at 89 with a minute and a half left. Both teams didn't score on their next possession, but Arizona went back in front when good ball movement finally freed Zeke Nnaji for a slam dunk, making it 91-89 with 19 seconds to go and setting up the game's final sequence.
NOTABLES
- Pepperdine is now 0-6 all-time against Arizona. Each of the last four meetings have been against a ranked Wildcats squad.
- Pepperdine entered the game as the nation's best free-throw shooting team and did nothing to change that with a 94.7% success rate tonight.
- With nine assists tonight, Ross raised his career total to 469. He's second all-time at Pepperdine and is now just 25 behind Jeremy Major's school record of 494.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine's second Wooden Legacy game will be against UCF on Friday (Nov. 29) at 6 p.m. on ESPNNews. Fans can also listen to WaveCasts with Al Epstein on the call at PepperdineWaves.com.
