White, Middlebrooks Lead Pepperdine Over Loyola, 94-83

It was a Saturday night shootout between Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount, and the Waves were easily the top guns.

Forwards Eric White and Levy Middlebrooks each had career-high totals of 32 points and 27 points, respectively, to lead Pepperdine to a 94-83 victory before 3,218 fans at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

The Waves improved to 2-3 in the West Coast Athletic Conference and 7-11 overall. Loyola fell to 2-3 and 10-8.

For Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick, the story of the game was simple: It was pretty much all in the family.

Harrick said that his son, Jim Jr., who only recently became a starting guard, was loading the guns for White and Middlebrooks, and they were hitting their targets.

Harrick said the reason White, who made 14 of 24 shots, and Middlebrooks, who made 11 of 18, did so well was that they were getting the ball in the spots they wanted it.

And Jim Jr., who scored a career-high 11 points and handed out 8 assists, was the player who got them the ball.

Harrick said his son has been hitting the open man since the junior guard won a starting spot five games ago, but that Pepperdine had not been making its shots.

The Waves made them Saturday night, 68% of them in the first half and 54% (39 of 72) for the game. They also outrebounded the Lions, 51-32, with White grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds and Middlebrooks getting 13.

Pepperdine made its first nine shots in the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game en route to a 23-12 lead with 14:24 left in the half. In that run, Harrick sank two three-pointers, adding a third later, and Craig Davis made another three-pointer.

The Lions managed to cut a lead that reached as many as 20 points to 51-41 by halftime. Loyola came within seven points three times in the second half, the last time at 63-56 with about 14 minutes remaining.

But Loyola never really recovered from Pepperdine’s opening blitz, and Lion Coach Paul Westhead said as much.

“They got too much too soon, and we couldn’t keep up,” he said. “There were times in the first half it (when) looked like we’d lose by 80 and never score another point.”

Sophomore guard Enoch Simmons scored a career-high 22 points, including 5 of 7 three-pointers, for the Lions.

Mike Yoest, Loyola’s season scoring leader, scored 16 points, but he did not get his first basket until there were about 10 minutes left in the first half. Teammate Mark Armstrong scored 14 points.