Waves Come Up Short Against Portland State

Friday, December 10

Portland, Ore.

6:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

3-5,0-0WCC

Portland State

4-4,0-2Big Sky

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Pepperdine	18	13	18	22	71
Portland St.	13	22	19	21	75

Malia Bambrick

Photo by: Scott Larson

12/10/2021 9:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

By: by Athletic Communications

PORTLAND, Oregon – The Pepperdine women's basketball team played an intense game against Portland State, but fell short 75-71 on Friday night in Viking Pavilion.

The Waves (3-5) had a better shooting percentage at 52% compared to the Vikings' (4-4) 51%. Pepperdine had the lead after the first 10 minutes of play, but unfortunately couldn't complete the comeback for the win.

BIG WAVES

Senior guard Malia Bambrick (Santa Clarita, Calif./Bishop Alemany HS) had 12 points, three assists, brought down three rebounds and had three steals.
Redshirt junior guard Jayla Ruffus-Milner (North Hills, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) had 12 points, shot 5-for-7 and grabbed five rebounds.
Senior guard Cheyenne Givens (Gardena, Calif./Serra HS/Los Angeles Trade-Tech) had 10 points, shot 5-for-6 and had five assists.
Freshman forward Meaali'i Amosa (Garden Grove, Calif./Mater Dei HS) had a season high of 10 points, shot 5-for-9 and collected four rebounds.

GAME RECAP

Portland State scored the first three points of the game, but thanks to Becky Obinma (Menifee, Calif./Rosary Academy/Texas Christian) and Jane Nwaba (Carson, Calif./Palisades Charter HS) on back to back layups, Pepperdine took the lead 4-3. The Vikings scored one from long range, but the Waves came back and went on a 12-point scoring run, 16-3. Portland State were able to close the gap to five and Pepperdine rounded out the first quarter leading 18-13.

In the second quarter, a jumper by Helena Friend (Huntington Beach, Calif./Blair Academy) increased the margin to seven, 20-13. Portland State had a nine-point scoring run to take back the lead 25-22. It was a lot of back-and-forth from there on, with the Vikings staying on top heading into the half 35-31.

The Vikings started the third quarter with a six-point scoring run to increase their margin, 41-31. Pepperdine had a four point scoring run, thanks to layups by Bambrick and Jayla Ruffus-Milner. Another five-point scoring run from Portland State extended the lead to an 11-point lead, 48-37. With less than a minute left in the third quarter, the Waves went on a seven-point scoring run to cut the deficit within five to head into the final frame at 54-49.

Pepperdine went on a four point scoring run to get back within three, 56-53. A back-and-forth two minutes lead to a Waves' eight-point scoring run to take the lead back 63-62. Portland State went on a seven-point scoring run to get back ahead, 69-63. Back-to-back jumpers by Amosa put the Waves within one shot, but the Vikings scored the final four points to secure the win.

STATS

Pepperdine had 22 points off of 16 forced turnovers by Portland State.
The Waves outrebounded the Vikings 30-28.
Pepperdine had 11 steals compared to Portland State's 10.
The Waves had 50 points in the paint.
There were eight lead changes in the game and it was tied twice.

NOTABLE

Bambrick is now tied for fifth on the Pepperdine all-time three-point made list with 145.

UP NEXT

The Waves will be back inside Firestone Fieldhouse for the last non-conference game against Boise State on Saturday, December 18. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. and will be live on the WCC Network.