Pepperdine No Match for UC Santa Barbara

Pepperdine couldn’t keep Gary Gray or Eric McArthur off the backboards in a 67-46 loss to UC Santa Barbara before 3,484 at the Campus Events Center Saturday night.

Gray, a 6-foot 9, 248-pound junior forward from Granada Hills, had a career-high 24 points and eight rebounds. McArthur had 15 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Waves committed 27 turnovers, including 17 in the first half, shot 38.5% from the floor (15 for 39) and were outrebounded, 42-27.

The Gauchos took a 31-21 lead at halftime. The Waves pulled to within 41-33 with 13:01 to play, but that was as close as they could come.

Tom Asbury, Pepperdine’s coach, said of his players: “I told them, ‘I can’t remember in 20-some years of coaching when I’ve been more disappointed with an effort. It was a disaster. We did nothing right.

“We’ve got some guys who can play, but we better find some guys who want to play.”

Dexter Howard led Pepperdine with 15 points.

Tom Lewis, Pepperdine’s leading scorer for the last two seasons, committed five turnovers and made only one of seven shots from the field. He finished with four points.

Sophomore guard Doug Christie had a game-high six turnovers and scored five points.

Asbury said that the turnovers bothered him but that other things bothered him more.

“We never put a body on Gray, we didn’t rebound, we never got a loose ball,” he said.

He said that his players knew that Santa Barbara plays a rough inside game and that they should have been prepared for that.

“It’s a local rivalry. We embarrassed ourselves; that’s all,” he said.

Asbury said he didn’t know if 6-10 sophomore center Mark Georgeson, a transfer from the University of Arizona who becomes eligible Dec. 16, will help improve the Waves.

“But I know he’ll compete and he’ll put a body on someone.”