SAN DIEGO, California – Kameron Edwards scored a season-high 23 points and the Pepperdine men's basketball team picked up an important West Coast Conference road victory, winning at San Diego 85-78 on Saturday night.
 
The Waves (8-9, 1-2) had one of their best three-point shooting nights of the season, going 11-for-20 (55.0%), and held off the Toreros' (7-12, 0-4) effort at a second-half comeback.
 
BIG WAVES

• Senior forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) surpassed the 20-point mark for the seventh time this season. He sank a career-best four three-pointers while making nine of 13 shots. He also had a team-best eight rebounds.
• Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half, 11 of them from the free throw line, for his eighth 20-point game of the season. He also had a game-high seven assists.
• Junior guard Skylar Chavez (Woodacre, Calif./Drake HS/Santa Rosa JC) had his second-best output of the season with 19 points. He made six of 11 shots and sank three three-pointers.
• Sophomore forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

KEY STATS 

• The Waves outshot the Toreros, 47.2% to 42.2%.
• Pepperdine made double-digit three-pointers for the fourth time this season, but for the first time since late November. USD went 7-for-20 (35.0%) on three-pointers.
• The Waves didn't quite hit their nation-leading free throw percentage of 84.4%, but they did go 24-for-32 (75.0%). USD went 17-for-22 (77.3%) from the line.
• Turnovers were close (the Waves committed 11 and forced 12) but Pepperdine enjoyed an 11-4 edge in points off turnovers.
• San Diego was led by Finn Sullivan's 25 points.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
It was an extremely low-scoring start, with a count of just 12-12 midway through the first half. But Kameron Edwards scored seven points in a 12-2 run, putting the Waves up double-digits at 24-14 with 6 1/2 minutes left. Sophomore guard Darryl Polk Jr. (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS) hit a three-pointer, and sophomore center Jackson Stormo (Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos HS) scored down low to give the Waves their biggest lead of the half, 14 points, at 32-18 with three minutes to go. Ross hit a three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to make it 35-24 at the break.
 
The Waves began the second half on a 10-3 run, giving Pepperdine its largest lead of the contest, 18 points, at 45-27. But San Diego eventually got things going, at one point making eight straight shots while coinciding with a Pepperdine cold spell, cutting the Waves' lead to one at 52-51 with just under 10 minutes to play.
 
Kameron Edwards then hit a three to start an 8-0 run, pushing Pepperdine's lead back up to nine at 60-51 with 8:16 to go. USD scored the next six points to get it back to within three with seven minutes left, but that's as close as USD would get the rest of the way.
 
Kameron Edwards hit two straight three-pointers, and a Ross three-pointer later on made it a double-digit lead again at 73-61 with four minutes to go. Pepperdine's lead hung around 10 points for the remainder of the game.
 
Both teams scored at least 50 points in the second half.
 
NOTABLES 

• The Waves were once again limited to eight available scholarship players. Jan Zidek (hand) is out indefinitely, joining Jade' Smith, Keith Smith and Andre Ball on the sidelines. It's the fourth time this season they've missed at least four players due to injury or illness, and the 14th time in 17 games they've been without multiple players.
• Pepperdine won in San Diego for the sixth time in the last seven years.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine returns to Firestone Fieldhouse for a pair of home games next week, hosting PCH Cup rival Loyola Marymount on Thursday (Jan. 16) at 6 p.m. and Saint Mary's on Saturday (Jan. 18) at 1 p.m. The LMU game will be shown locally on Spectrum SportsNet and the SMC contest will air nationally on the CBS Sports Network. Both games will have audio-only WaveCasts with Al Epstein at PepperdineWaves.com.