LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The Pepperdine men's basketball team had its stay at the West Coast Conference Tournament end in a heartbreaker, as BYU prevailed 82-77 in overtime in the semifinals late Monday night.
Colbey Ross added one more big moment to his outstanding career, hitting a 20-footer at the regulation buzzer to tie the game and send it to OT. But the second-seeded Cougars (20-5) outscored the third-seeded Waves (12-12) 10-5 in the extra period.
BIG WAVES
- Junior forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) had team highs of 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists. It was his eighth 20-point game of the season.
- Senior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) had a tough shooting night but scored 16 points and also had six rebounds.
- Junior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) scored a season-high 15 points and also had eight rebounds and three steals before fouling out near the end of regulation.
KEY STATS
- The Waves led for 36:15 of regulation. BYU led for a total of 4:07, most of which came in overtime.
- BYU ended up outshooting the Waves 42.6% to 40.3%.
- The Cougars fared better on three-pointers (7-for-21 to 5-for-27) and free throws (23-for-27 to 14-for-20).
- Pepperdine had a big edge via turnovers, forcing 21 while committing 14, and earning a 25-9 edge in points off turnovers.
- BYU got a game-high 23 points from Alex Barcello, one of three Cougars in double-figures.
PLAY BY PLAY
The Waves got off to a brilliant start, jumping out to an 8-2 lead less than two minutes in after Smith hit a three-pointer, Ross scored in the paint and Edwards stole the ball and went the length of the court and finished a three-point play. A 7-0 run capped off by a basket by grad transfer forward
Kene Chukwuka (Stockholm, Sweden/Pitt) made it 17-7 after 6 1/2 minutes. Three-pointers by Edwards and sophomore forward
Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) gave Pepperdine its largest lead of the game of 12 points at 23-11 with a little more than 11 minutes to go in the half.
But at 25-15, the Waves went cold and didn't score for five minutes. However, the Cougars didn't take advantage, scoring just five points in that time. Pepperdine still led 31-22 with three minutes left but the Cougars ended the half on a 13-4 run, tying the game at 35 at the break.
BYU took its first lead of the game on the first basket of the second half, but the Waves came back with an 8-0 run to go back in front 43-37. Pepperdine maintained the lead for the next 17+ minutes, going up by as many as 10 points at 61-51 with 8 1/2 minutes left after a basket by sophomore guard
Sedrick Altman (Rialto, Calif./Colony HS).
But BYU chipped away, and with Pepperdine leading 70-66 with under two minutes to go, the Cougars scored the next six points. A Barcello lay-up gave BYU its second lead of the game at 71-70 with 18 seconds left, and the Cougars made one of two free throws with six seconds remaining. Ross pushed the ball up the floor, and nailed a jumper from straightaway, just a step inside the three-point line, to the game at 72 at the buzzer.
The Waves shot 1-for-7 from the field in overtime, and an Edwards basket was their only two points for the first four minutes. That allowed BYU to get out to a 78-74 lead. Edwards made two free throws with 52 seconds left to cut the deficit to 78-76. The Waves had a chance to tie or take the lead, but the Cougars got a steal. BYU made a pair of free throws to go up by four with 16 seconds left.
Ross drew a foul, and made one of two free throws with 11 seconds to go. Down three, the Waves had to foul, but Barcello iced the game with two free throws with nine seconds left.
NOTABLES
- If this was Ross' final game in a Waves uniform, he'll finish with Pepperdine record totals of 2,199 points and 826 assists, among a couple of dozen school records that he holds. He ranks sixth and second, respectively, in those categories in WCC history.
- Ross extended his WCC Tournament-record to a total of 212 points.
- This was the first-ever WCC Tournament meeting between the Waves and Cougars.
- Pepperdine was hoping to make its first WCC title game since 2002, but fell to 7-10 all-time in the semifinal round.
