SPOKANE, Washington – Colbey Ross and the Pepperdine men's basketball team gave #1 Gonzaga all it could handle for 40 minutes, but the Bulldogs survived with a 75-70 West Coast Conference victory on Saturday night.
 
The Waves (7-9, 0-2) and Bulldogs (16-1, 2-0) were tied 37-37 at halftime. Pepperdine led by two with 11 1/2 minutes left, was in a tie game with a little more than eight minutes to go, and had a three-point attempt to tie in the closing seconds.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) continued his big-game prowess with game highs of 24 points and 10 assists. It was his third double-double of the season and the 11th of his career. He played all 40 minutes and also had five rebounds.
• Senior forward Kameron Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) got his third double-double of the season and the eighth of his career with 14 points and 10 rebounds, as well as three steals.
• Freshman forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) hit three three-pointers and provided 11 points off the bench.
• Junior guard Skylar Chavez (Woodacre, Calif./Drake HS/Santa Rosa JC) had 10 points and five rebounds.
• Sophomore forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had eight points and seven rebounds.

KEY STATS 

• The Waves were outshot 49.1% to 43.8%.
• Pepperdine had an edge on three-pointers (7-for-20, 35.0% to 5-for-18, 27.8%).
• Gonzaga got to the line more (14-for-21, 66.7%) but Pepperdine had a better free throw percentage (7-for-9, 77.8%).
• The Waves had advantages of 14-11 in points off turnovers and 9-4 in second-chance points.
• There were eight ties and 11 lead changes.
• Gonzaga had five players score in double-figures, led by Killian Tillie's 20 points.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves couldn't have asked for a better start. They scored on four of their first five possessions, with six points via Ross. At the 11:41 mark, Pepperdine led 18-16 and Ross had 11 of the points while assisting on two of the other three baskets.
 
But a 9-0 Gonzaga run put the Bulldogs in front, and the Waves would go more than five minutes without a field goal. Gonzaga would take its biggest lead of the game at nine points a couple of times, last at 33-24 with 4:44 left. But Pepperdine came right back with an 8-0 run on baskets by four different players. A three-pointer by Zidek later tied it at 35, and Ross scored on a floater right before the halftime buzzer to make it 37-37 at halftime.
 
Pepperdine began the second half by taking leads of 40-39 on a Zidek three-pointer and 42-41 on a Kameron Edwards lay-up – both assisted by Ross. But Gonzaga scored the next eight points to regain the lead.
 
With Gonzaga up 51-44, Pepperdine went on a 9-0 run, capped off by a Chavez three-pointer to go back in front 53-51 with 11 1/2 minutes left. That would be the Waves' final lead, though Ross would later tie the game at 59 with 8:17 left.
 
The Bulldogs pushed the lead back up to eight at 71-63 with less than four minutes left, but once again the Waves cut into the lead, as Chavez sank a three-pointer and Ross made two free throws with 1:32 left, making it 71-68. A ferocious Kameron Edwards dunk cut it to three again at 73-70 with 48 seconds left.
 
Gonzaga missed the front end of a one-and-one with 10 seconds left, and Ross quickly brought the ball up the court, but his three-point attempt was blocked, and Gonzaga iced the game with two free throws.
 
NOTABLES 

• The Waves were down to eight available scholarship players. Darryl Polk Jr. (illness) was sidelined for the first time this season. It's the third time this season they've missed at least four players due to injury or illness, and the 13th time in 16 games they've been without multiple players.
• Ross passed Mychel Thompson and Dick Skophammer on the Waves' all-time scoring list tonight and moved up to 16th place with 1,424 points.
• This was the sixth time that Pepperdine has played the AP's #1-ranked team and while all six have been losses, this was the closest margin of the six.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine next plays at San Diego next Saturday (Jan. 11) at 7 p.m. There will be an audio-only WaveCasts with Al Epstein at PepperdineWaves.com and USD will stream the game via the WCC Network.