Pepperdine Returns Home, Attempts to End Slump Against CS Fullerton

Pepperdine (4-3), which has won at home but lost all except one game on the road, will play host to Cal State Fullerton (2-3), which has won only at home, at 7:30 tonight at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

The Waves have lost two in a row and three of their last four, all on the road. After his team lost to UC Santa Barbara, 76-68, last Thursday, Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said, “We’re a very tired basketball team.”

Against the Gauchos, Tom Lewis was about the only Pepperdine player who didn’t appear to tire in the second half. He scored a team-high 26 points, 16 in the second half, and had 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Lewis is averaging nearly 25 points a game.

Pepperdine’s Levy Middlebrooks and Craig Davis, the team’s other top scorers, were in the game in the first half and out of it in the second. Middlebrooks grabbed 10 rebounds and scored 8 points in the first half but finished with only 14 rebounds and 10 points. Davis had 8 points in the first 20 minutes. But he didn’t score in the second half and overall made just 3 of 11 shots from the field.

Fullerton defeated Utah, 67-43, Saturday night and was buoyed by the return of Henry Turner, who had been out two weeks with strained ligaments in his right foot. Turner led the Titans in scoring (22) and rebounding (16).