MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's basketball team pulled within five points of Northern Arizona in the third quarter, yet the Waves fell 80-62 in their penultimate non-conference game on Monday afternoon.
A 13-0 first-quarter run from the Lumberjacks (7-3) forced the Waves (3-9) to play from behind for most of the way, and although Pepperdine cut the deficit to five points in the third quarter, NAU's transition offense and ball movement around the perimeter quashed Pepperdine's comeback hopes.
BIG WAVES
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Freshman forward Jorynn Ross (Milwaukee, Wisc./Summer Creek HS) rewrote her career highs once again with 16 points (on 7-for-13 shooting) and seven rebounds to lead Pepperdine.
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Addi Melone (Las Vegas, Nev./Centennial HS) scored 10 points, added three rebounds and tied the team-high with two steals.
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Ella Brubaker (University Place, Wash. Curtis HS) added eight points and two assists off the bench.
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Holly Griffiths (Melbourne, Australia/Our Lady of Mercy College) scored seven points, grabbed three rebounds and drew a pair of pivotal charges in the third quarter as Pepperdine made its comeback attempt.
KEY STATS
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Nine different Waves found the boxscore and Pepperdine's bench out-scored NAU's 29-14.
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For only the third time this season, Pepperdine was out-rebounded 39-29.
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Northern Arizona scored 18 fast-break points, while Pepperdine scored two.
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NAU's Grace Beasley led all scorers with 21 points, while her teammate Leia Beattie chipped in 19.
In the first quarter, Melone got the Waves off to a 4-0 lead by hitting back-to-back midrange jumpers, yet the Lumberjack offense woke up and rattled off a 9-0 run thanks to guards Grace Beasley and Leia Beattie. Pepperdine quickly tied the game off a basket from Ross and Brubaker's first three of the game; later, her second basket gave the Waves a 13-12 lead with 3 minutes and 8 seconds in the frame. However, NAU went on a 13-0 run to go up 25-13 at the end of the quarter.
Pepperdine countered in the second quarter by attacking the paint and getting to the free-throw line. Ross scored eight of her 16 points in the period alone, and as a team, Pepperdine connected on 80% of its free throws in the quarter. Trailing 39-20 midway through the second quarter, Pepperdine went on a 5-0 run thanks to free throws from Helena Friend (Huntington Beach, Calif./Blair Academy), and a bucket from Ross, but consecutive transition baskets from NAU's Taylor Feldman gave the visitors an 18 point lead. Thanks to a pair of tough finishes from Emerita Mashaire (Helsinki, Finland/HBA Marksy) and another Brubaker three, the Waves pulled within 11 before a four-point play from the 'Jacks gave them a 49-34 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Waves countered the smaller 'Jacks by working the ball inside. Ross and Megan Harkey (Summerfield, N.C./Northwest Guilford HS) made layups on back-to-back Pepperdine possessions, then Melone's three cut NAU's lead to a dozen with 8 minutes and 7 seconds to go. Griffiths then made several hustle plays on both ends of the floor: She drew a foul underneath and made both free throws, drew a charge at the other end, then banked in a layup to pull Pepperdine within five, 55-50.
Yet that was as close as the Waves got. Despite trailing 59-52 at the end of the third quarter, NAU pushed its lead back to double-figures in less than a minute. Melone and Mashaire helped pull Pepperdine within eight points early in the fourth quarter, but a 22-0 NAU run put the game away for good.
UP NEXT: Pepperdine hosts Cal State LA on Friday, Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. in the first half of a doubleheader with the men's team. Tickets can be purchased at tickets.pepperdinewaves.com.
