Pepperdine’s Collapse Continues With a 92-79 Defeat by Santa Clara

Instead of peaking for next week’s West Coast Athletic Conference basketball tournament, Pepperdine appears to be collapsing.

The Waves’ latest loss came Saturday night against Santa Clara, 92-79, before 3,639 fans at Toso Pavilion.

Pepperdine was competitive for about the first four minutes, but the game was all but over by halftime.

Pepperdine finished the regular season 18-11 overall and 10-4 in the conference. Santa Clara is 18-9 and 7-7.

Still, Pepperdine wound up tied for second place with Loyola Marymount and will be seeded second to regular-season champion St. Mary’s in the conference tournament starting March 4 at the University of San Francisco.

Pepperdine earned the tournament’s No. 2 seeding because it split two games with St. Mary’s, while Loyola lost two to the Gaels.

Mitch Burley scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half, and his third three-point basket of the period gave the Broncos a 48-35 halftime lead.

In the second half, Santa Clara built an 18-point lead when Burley made two free throws to make it, 67-49. After that, Pepperdine never got closer than seven.

Pepperdine then began fouling in frustration, and Santa Clara looked as if it was fouling forfun.

A total of 54 personal fouls were called, 29 on the Broncos.

The Waves spent much of the second half shooting three-point shots, trying desperately to catch up. But they were continually frustrated by the Broncos--and by their own poor shot selection.

Pepperdine shot air balls, missed foul shots and layups, committed turnovers, and threw and kicked the ball out of bounds.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury, who had a few blistering words for his players after the game, was at a loss to explain his team’s poor performance.

“Obviously, we were not sharing the ball, and we were not taking very high-percentage shots,” Asbury said.

“We didn’t guard Burley in the first half; that was pretty obvious. And that put us in a big hole. He’s only been shooting 41% and averaging about 11 points.”

Asbury also said that Pepperdine’s loss to USF Friday night hurt team morale.

He was asked how he would get the Waves ready for the WCAC tournament.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess we’ll get our heads up and come back and play.”

Santa Clara outshot Pepperdine in the first half, 63% to 43%, and also in the game, 59% to 45%.

The Broncos outrebounded Pepperdine, 35-30, and Santa Clara’s 7-foot 1-inch freshman center, Ron Reis, had a career-high 10 rebounds.

Burley scored 27 points, and Tom Lewis led Pepperdine with 19.