PORTLAND, Ore. – The Pepperdine women's basketball team dropped a road West Coast Conference game, 70-57, to Portland on Thursday night.
 
The Waves (7-13, 2-8) had a slight advantage over the Pilots (15-6, 9-1) after the first quarter, but Portland took the lead in the second quarter. The Waves did outscore the Pilots in two of the four quarters, but that wasn't enough to surpass Portland to earn the victory.
 
BIG WAVES
 

• Graduate guard Marly Walls (Bardstown, Ky./Nelson County HS/Bucknell) was the leading scorer with 20 points. She had six rebounds, four assists and a steal. This was Walls fifth game of the season with 20 or more points.
• Redshirt senior forward Becky Obinma (Menifee, Calif./Rosary Academy TCU) recorded her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. She dished out three assists and had a block and steal.
• Junior forward Jane Nwaba (Carson, Calif./Palisades Charter) put up eight points and brought down eight rebounds.

 
GAME RECAP
 
Helena Friend (Huntington Beach, Calif./Blair Academy) opened up the game with a bucket from long range, but Portland put up a layup to make the score 3-2. Obinma scored five straight points to get a 10-4 Pepperdine lead, but the Pilots had a five-point scoring run of their own to cut the deficit to one, at 10-9. With under two minutes left, Pepperdine laid in a layup to take a 16-10 lead. Portland had five consecutive points to end the quarter only a point behind the Waves at 16-15.
 
Portland continued its scoring run in the second quarter, collecting the first four points to take a 19-16 advantage. The Waves and Pilots went back and forth, but Portland hit one from the arc to take a six-point lead, 28-22. In the final thirty seconds of play before heading into the half, Walls sank a layup to get the score to 37-28.
 
After the break, the Waves made the first basket, but the Pilots hit back-to-back layups to increase the lead to double-digits, 41-30. Pepperdine and Portland exchanged baskets, before the Pilots scored five straight-points with under five seconds left in the third that added to their 56-38 lead.
 
In the final frame, Pepperdine drained back-to-back layups to cut the opposition's advantage to 56-42. With under five minutes to play, Walls made three free throws to get the score at 67-53. Portland had a free throw of their own, before the Waves put up four points, 68-57, with less than three minutes to play. In the last minute, the Pilots scored a layup to secure the victory.
 
STATS
 

• The Waves out-rebounded the Pilots 39-27.
• Portland outshot Pepperdine 50.9% to 35.7%.
• The Waves blocked four Pilots' shots, compared to Portland's two blocked Pepperdine shots.

 
UP NEXT
 
The Waves will continue on the road and visit #17/20 Gonzaga on Saturday, Jan. 28. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the WCC Network.