MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team made the most of a rare opportunity to take on a Pac-12 team at home, beating California, 74-62, on Wednesday behind 26 points from Kessler Edwards and 11 assists from Colbey Ross.
 
The Waves (3-2) never trailed the Golden Bears (2-4), led 44-30 at halftime and by as many as 19 points in the second half.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had a season-high 26 points, his third 20-point game of the season. Edwards went 9-for-13 from the field, 4-for-6 on three-pointers and 4-for-4 at the line. He also had a team-high eight rebounds along with two blocks.
• Senior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) was held to nine points, but contributed a season-high 11 assists, his 15th career game with double-figure assists.
• Sophomore forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) came back strong after missing the previous two games with an injury. He scored 14 points, 12 of them in the first half, and went 4-for-5 on three-pointers.
• Sophomore guard Andre Ball (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills HS) had a career-high 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting with two three-pointers.

KEY STATS 

• Pepperdine shot 50% or better in both halves and finished at 50.9% for the game. The Waves held Cal to 39.6% shooting for the night.
• The Waves made 10 of their season-high 12 three-pointers in the first half and finished 12-for-26 (46.2%). Cal went 5-for-24.
• The Golden Bears kept things reasonably close due to the foul line, where they went 15-for-21 compared to the Waves' 4-for-5.
• California got 27 points from Matt Bradley and 21 from Grant Anticevich, but no one else had more than four.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves built a 10-point lead at 29-19 with less than eight minutes to go in the first half after Zidek made his third three-pointer and senior forward Kene Chukwuka (Stockholm, Sweden/Pitt) scored on a lay-up. Though Cal scored the next five points, Pepperdine came back with a 7-0 run capped off by an Edwards jumper to make it 36-24. An Edwards three-pointer put the Waves ahead 41-26, and it was 44-30 at the break.
 
A Ball three-pointer gave Pepperdine its largest lead of the night at 55-36 with 12 1/2 minutes to go. Cal got the deficit down to 10 points a couple of times, but Pepperdine maintained a double-digit lead for the entire second half.
 
NOTABLES 

• Pepperdine hosted a Pac-12 team for the first time since November 2012 (a win against Washington State) and for just the sixth time when a Pac-10/Pac-12 foe has visited as a member of the conference.
• The Waves recorded their first-ever win over the Golden Bears. The previous three meetings were all played in Berkeley.
• Edwards collected his 100th and 101st career blocked shots tonight, becoming just the eighth Wave ever to reach the century mark.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine hosts CSUN on Saturday (Dec. 12) at 6 p.m. in Firestone Fieldhouse. The game will be streamed online via WaveCasts on the WCC Network with Al Epstein on the call.