SPOKANE, Washington – The Pepperdine men's basketball team's delayed West Coast Conference opener resulted in a 95-70 defeat at #1 Gonzaga on Thursday night.
 
The Waves (4-6, 0-1) rallied to take a 26-25 lead in the first half and trailed just 43-39 at halftime, but the Bulldogs (13-0, 4-0) pulled away in the second half.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) led the Waves with 14 points.
• Grad transfer forward Kene Chukwuka (Stockholm, Sweden/Pitt), who had missed the last three games in December, sank three three-pointers in the second half and scored 11 points.
• Sophomore guard Sedrick Altman (Rialto, Calif./Colony HS) scored nine points.
• Senior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) finished with nine points, seven assists and three steals.
• Sophomore guard Robbie Heath (Whittlesea, Australia/Abington HS/West Chester) scored nine first-half points.

KEY STATS 

• The Waves were outshot 53.1% to 40.7% for the game. Pepperdine went from 50.0% in the first half to 31.0% in the second, while the Zags improved from 45.5% to 61.3%.
• Pepperdine was outrebounded 47-28. The Bulldogs turned 15 offensive rebounds into a 17-5 edge in second-chance points.
• Gonzaga had four players score at least 18 points, led by Corey Kispert's 23 and Drew Timme's 20.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves led twice in the first half, the first time at 2-0, though the Zags responded with the next 10 points. Gonzaga went up by 10, but Pepperdine erased that as Heath came off the bench to score nine quick points, and a short jumper by Altman put the Waves up 26-25 with 6 1/2 minutes left. Gonzaga went on another run and took its biggest lead of the half of 11 points at 41-30. But Edwards hit a pair of three-pointers, and junior guard Darryl Polk Jr. (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS) raced up the floor and sank a three at the halftime buzzer, making it 43-39.
 
Gonzaga scored the first seven points of the second half and maintained a double-digit lead for the final 13+ minutes of the contest.
 
NOTABLES 

• The Waves were playing their first game in three weeks due to Christmas and a COVID-19 pause, and only recently resumed practicing.
• Ross passed Josh Perkins of Gonzaga for fifth place on the WCC's all-time assists list. He now has 719.
• This was the third straight year that Pepperdine has taken on a top-ranked Gonzaga team.
• The Waves had their entire team available for the first time this season.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine returns home to host Portland on Saturday (Jan. 16) at 4 p.m. The game will be streamed online via WaveCasts on the WCC Network with Al Epstein on the call.