MALIBU, Calif. – The Pepperdine women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2020-21 season on Tuesday, falling to California Baptist 75-67. Monique Andriuolo had her best game of the year thus far, dropping 21 points and bringing down eight rebounds.

The Waves (3-1) were outscored by the Lancers (7-0) in every quarter but the third but kept it close throughout the contest.

BIG WAVES

• Senior forward Monique Andriuolo (Melbourne, Australia/Maribyrnong Secondary College) led the Waves with 21 points, shooting 8-for-16 from the field including a perfect 2-for-2 from beyond the three-point line. She also brought down eight rebounds.
• Junior guard Cydney Rivera (Cypress, Texas/Collin College) had a season-high 13 points, shooting 5-for-10 from the field and 3-for-4 from three. She also had a team-high three assists.
• Redshirt-sophomore guard Jayda Ruffus-Milner (North Hills, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) led the team with 10 rebounds.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Lancers drew first blood, making a three pointer to open up the game. Pepperdine scored the next four points to take its first lead of the game at 4-3. California Baptist went on a 7-0 run early on in the quarter and took a 15-8 lead. After the first quarter, the Lancers led 18-14.

In the second, the Waves went on a bit of a run, with Rivera scoring five quick points to give the Waves the lead. The two teams were relatively even during the quarter, but the Lancers scored nine of the final 11 points to take a 41-32 lead into the halftime break.

After the half, California Baptist picked up right where it left off, surging ahead to the largest lead of the game for either side at 53-36. Pepperdine then went on a run of its own, scoring 14 of the final 16 points of the quarter, getting to within six points at 55-49 going into the final period of play.

The Waves tried to mount a comeback in the fourth, but some costly turnovers and timely shooting from the Lancers kept the Waves from completing the comeback. Andriuolo scored eight of her 21 points in the final 10 minutes of play.

HIGHLIGHTS


KEY STATS

• The Waves outshot the Lancers, 44.4% to 41.2% but took 14 less shots.
• Pepperdine also shot better from long range, shooting 42.9% from the three-point line in comparison to the Lancers' 38.7%.
• California Baptist protected the basketball much better than the Waves, committing only nine turnovers compared to Pepperdine's 20.
• The Lancers also capitalized on the turnovers, scoring 24 points off turnovers, while the Waves scored just eight points off turnovers.

 
UP NEXT
The Waves hit the road for the first time this weekend, traveling to Orange County to take on Cal State Fullerton on Sunday at 3 p.m.