MALIBU, California – After spending the last three years on the other side of the PCH Cup rivalry, Emily Ben-Jumbo has now joined the Pepperdine women's basketball team as an assistant coach.
 
"We are excited to have Emily join our staff," Pepperdine Coach Kristen Dowling said. "She is a relationship-based woman of great character who not only aligns with the mission of Pepperdine Athletics and our program, but she was a successful WCC student-athlete herself. She is an experienced coach of post players who will add so much value to our young women on and off the court."
 
The 2021-22 school year will be Ben-Jumbo's eighth in the West Coast Conference. She was an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount the past two seasons and was the program's Director of Operations in 2018-19. She's also an alum and former student-athlete with the Lions.
 
"I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Kristen and join an incredible staff at such a special place," Ben-Jumbo said. "I am likewise excited about Kristen's vision to take this program to the next level. The opportunity to coach, teach and mentor all of the amazing young women who recognize the ways this program will help them in life, both on and off the court, is inspiring, and I am looking forward to it. The future, and present moment alike, are very bright for this program, and I am extremely honored to be here. Let's work!"
 
During her coaching tenure at LMU, she helped the Lions to their first postseason appearance in 14 years when the team played in the 2019 WNIT. In 2021, she mentored one Lion to all-conference honors, while another received WCC All-Tournament honors, the school's first since 2013.
 
Ben-Jumbo also has a wealth of coaching experience at the youth and high school levels. She is a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer with a specialization in performance enhancement and corrective exercises.
 
She played professionally in Luxembourg (2016-17) and Argentina (2017) and averaged a double-double in both leagues. She helped lead her team to the league finals in Argentina.
 
Ben-Jumbo earned her master's degree in business management and entrepreneurship from Durham University in England in 2016. She played for the women's basketball team that season, which was the top-ranked squad in the conference and reached the finals.
 
Originally from Tualatin, Ore., Ben-Jumbo graduated from Loyola Marymount in 2015 with a degree in communication. She played 119 games in her four-year career, which ranked her among the program's top-10 all-time in games played. Among other accolades, she received All-WCC honorable mention notice as a senior in 2015 and also earned a spot on the WCC's All-Academic team that year. In 2014, she received the WCC's individual sportsmanship award. Ben-Jumbo was team captain beginning as a sophomore.