MALIBU, Calif. — Despite holding the undefeated California Baptist Lancers to their worst shooting night of the year, the Pepperdine women's basketball team fell in a close 60-57 home loss on Saturday.

The Waves (2-8) held the Lancers (8-0) to a mere eight percent (2-for-25) from three, yet four points from CBU's Chloe Webb in the final 37 seconds were the difference in the game. In the defensive-heavy struggle, Pepperdine out-shot the Lancers 35.7% to 29.2% from the field, yet CBU overcame that by forcing 31 turnovers to their 16.

BIG WAVES

• Ella Brubaker (University Place, Wash. Curtis HS) led the Waves in scoring for the fifth-straight game with 13 points on 4-for-14 shooting in her first Division I start.
• Jorynn Ross (Milwaukee, Wisc./Summer Creek HS) re-wrote her career-high with 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting to go along with five rebounds, a block and three steals.
• Jane Nwaba (Carson, Calif. Palisades Charter HS) had her second double-double of the year with 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
• Addi Melone (Las Vegas, Nev./Centennial HS) had a Division I-high 10 rebounds to pair with her six points, three steals and two assists.

KEY STATS

• Pepperdine's defense put the clamps down on CBU's three-point shooting, as the Lancers missed their first 12 threes. CBU finished 2-25 (8%) from three.
• The Waves out-rebounded their opponents 37-25 while outshooting the Lancers by connecting on 35.7% of their field goals compared to CBU's 29.2% shooting.
• CBU's Chloe Webb accounted for 28 of CBU's 60 points.

Pepperdine came out hot with a 6-1 lead thanks to four points from Megan Harkey (Summerfield, N.C./Northwest Guilford HS), then Ross came off the bench to help the Waves go up 8-5 with 5 minutes and 21 seconds to go. The Waves never trailed in the first quarter thanks to a 4-0 run from Nwaba and Helena Friend (Huntington Beach, Calif./Blair Academy) to give the hosts a 14-9 advantage in the first 10 minutes.

However, the Lancers opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 17-14 lead, prompting a Waves timeout. Although a Friend three was waved off minutes later, the Waves chipped away with four points from Emerita Mashaire (Helsinki, Finland/HBA Marksy) in the second quarter. CBU led by as many as 11 points with 1 minute and 22 seconds left, but Friend sank a jumper, Maggie Vick (Morristown, Tenn./Lakeway Christian HS) made two free throws and Melone's deep three as time expired helped pull the Waves within four at the break. 

Trailing 29-23 after the first half, Pepperdine needed a spark. And they got it with a team effort — first with Brubaker getting to the line and connecting on a free throw, then with Nwaba's midrange jumper and finally with a corner three from Melone three set up from a block from Ross at the other end to tie the game at 31-all.

Although a turnover led to CBU's first made three of the game to put the visitors up 34-31, the Waves hung in the game thanks to freshman Jorynn Ross, who made back-to-back layups to put Pepperdine up 37-36. Ross scored six of her 10 points in the third quarter, which helped the Waves take a 43-41 lead at the end of the third quarter.

In a fourth quarter eerily similar to the one that felled the Waves at North Texas, Pepperdine fell behind despite two threes from Brubaker and two buckets from Nwaba. The Lancers used a 10-2 lead to take a 51-48 advantage with 6:26 left to play, then kept the hosts at arm's length until the final three minutes.

With the foul totals in their favor, Nwaba and Brubaker got to the line and went a perfect 4-0 from the charity stripe to go up 57-56 with 43 seconds to play. From there, Webb took over with a layup, then two free throws to ice the game at 60-57 with 16 seconds to play. Pepperdine's game-tying attempts fell short on its final possession.

UP NEXT: Pepperdine takes its final non-conference road trip to Cal State Bakersfield next Saturday, Dec. 16 at 1 p.m.