Pepperdine Supports Its Reputation With Win

There is talk that the best college basketball team in Southern California plays atop a hill that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, in a place called Firestone Fieldhouse.

Pauley Pavilion? They just hung an NIT banner there, didn’t they?

Big deal.

The Sports Arena? It takes more than a a few big-name freshmen to get you into games in the middle of March.

We’re talking Pepperdine here. We’re talking about a team that has reached the NCAA tournament in three of the past four seasons. UC Irvine players had heard the talk.

“This is supposed to be the best team in the Los Angeles area, including USC and UCLA,” Anteater forward Troy Carmon said. “That’s what I here people saying.”

Add UC Irvine to the list of the impressed.

Pepperdine outscored UCI, 26-10, in the last nine minutes of the first half en route to a 81-72 nonconference win Saturday night in front of 3,010 spectators in the not-so-storied Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves are working on this tradition stuff. They’ve won 17 straight games here.

The win was Pepperdine’s fourth straight after a 67-61 loss to Kansas in its season opener. UCI falls to 1-2.

The fall was abrupt. The Anteaters led, 23-22, with 9:10 left in the first half. Pepperdine guard Jon Korfas connected from the top of the key at the 8:58 mark to give the Waves their first lead. They led the rest of the way.

Irvine shot 40.1% in the first half (13 of 32), to Pepperdine’s 52.8% (19 of 36). And if there’s one thing that has emerged in UCI’s first three games, it’s that the Anteaters must shoot well to win.

Senior Johnny Rogers, who had 32 points for the Anteaters in last season’s 92-91 win over Pepperdine, was held to 10 points on 4 of 15 shooting.

“We let our missed shots affect us,” UCI Coach Bill Mulligan said. “Our guys seem to think that when the ball isn’t going in the hole, their whole game will fall apart.”

Said Carmon: “We were missing everything. We couldn’t get into our offense, so we were kind of forced to shoot some long shots. And they weren’t going in.”

Irvine pulled to within five points twice in the second half, but Pepperdine’s experience showed late in the game. After the Anteaters had closed the gap to 68-63 with 5:57 to play on Mike Hess’ 15-footer, Pepperdine scored the next eight points.

Forward Eric White led the Waves with 22 points. Pepperdine had five players score in double figures.

Experience is one of the reasons the Waves have such lofty preseason expectations. They have all five starters returning from a team that finished 23-9 last season, including 6-foot, 5-inch guard Dwayne Polee, the West Coast Athletic Conference’s most valuable player. There is no shortage of talent in the land of mud slides.

“They’re definitely a good team,” Rogers said. “They’re all experienced, and they can all hurt you in different ways.”

And what of Pepperdine’s reputation? Rogers, too, had heard the talk.

“Coming in, I felt this was a must-win if we wanted to play in any tournament after the season’s over,” he said. “Our season’s not over . . . we’re (only) 1-2. But it hurts losing a game like this.”

Senior forward Todd Murphy finished with a game-high 24 points. Guard Scott Brooks hit 6 of 9 shots from the floor and finished with 12 points. The Anteaters were 10 of 13 from the free throw line.

Those were the highlights. The lows came in the first half, when UCI found itself in a hole it could never completely get out of.

“We were reaching a little bit (on defense),” Hess said. “Sometimes that happens when you’re missing your shots. You try to make up for it at the other end.

“But there’s really not a remedy when the shots aren’t falling. You just have to hope that they do.”

The shots fell a bit more often in the second half. UCI outscored Pepperdine, 39-33, after the intermission.

By that time, those bullies from Malibu, the guys with the big reputations, had made their points.