PROVO, Utah – The Pepperdine men's basketball team nearly overcame its coldest-shooting night of the season with what would have been a big second-half comeback, but BYU prevailed 65-54 on Saturday night in West Coast Conference play.
 
Despite shooting 28.8% for the game, the Waves (6-7, 2-2) cut a 16-point deficit down to three with less than five minutes to play, but the Cougars (13-3, 4-1) were able to close out the win and maintain second place in the WCC.
 
BIG WAVES

• Senior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) led all scorers with 21 points and he added four assists and three steals. It was the 50th time in his career with a 20-point game, and the sixth this season.
• Junior forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half. He recorded his second consecutive double-double with 10 rebounds.
• Junior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) scored eight points.
• Sophomore guard Sedrick Altman (Rialto, Calif./Colony HS) scored seven points.
• Grad transfer forward Kene Chukwuka (Stockholm, Sweden/Pitt) grabbed 10 rebounds.

KEY STATS 

• Pepperdine shot 21.9% in the first half and 35.3% in the second half.
• BYU finished at 37.5% shooting for the game (44.4% in the first half, 31.0% in the second).
• The Waves committed just seven turnovers and forced 11.
• The Cougars had slight advantages making threes (six to five) and free throws (17 to 11).
• BYU put three players in double-figures, led by Brandon Averette's 15 points.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
Pepperdine led for the first few minutes and it was 12-11 BYU after a fast-break lay-up by Smith about five minutes in. But the Waves hit an icy stretch offensively, missing their next 10 shots, while making just one of 18 attempts during a 10-minute stretch. Fortunately, Pepperdine forced some turnovers to keep BYU from going up big, but the Cougars still took their first double-digit lead at 25-15 and went up by as many as 13 points before going into the break with a 37-26 lead.
 
BYU took its largest lead of 16 points at 53-37 and still led by 16 at 55-39 with a little more than 10 minutes left. A tremendous stretch of nearly five minutes got Pepperdine back into the game, however. Edwards had seven points in a 12-0 run, and the Waves forced BYU into six straight misses, cutting the deficit to four at 55-51 with 6 1/2 minutes left.
 
An Edwards three-pointer made it a three-point game at 57-54 with 4:50 left. But that would turn out to be Pepperdine's final points. Both teams missed on multiple possessions, but the Cougars hit two free throws with 2:43 left to extend the lead, and ended up scoring the game's final eight points.
 
NOTABLES

• Ross edged closer to becoming the program's first 2,000-point scorer. He's now at 1,975 points.
• Edwards has recorded consecutive double-doubles for the third time in his career.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine meets BYU for the second time in five days when the Waves host the Cougars on Wednesday (Jan. 27) at noon. It will be televised locally by FOX Sports Prime Ticket and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts with Al Epstein at PepperdineWaves.com.