Pepperdine Pulls Away, 88-64

After St. Mary’s gave up the most points in its history in Thursday night’s 150-119 loss to Loyola Marymount, Coach Paul Landreaux said he hoped his team would have enough strength and stamina to play Pepperdine Friday night.

He was disappointed on both counts.

The Waves overcame a poor start and routed St. Mary’s, 88-64, before 2,647 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Pepperdine improved to 10-10 overall and 4-3 in the West Coast Conference. St. Mary’s fell to 6-14 and 3-5.

Pepperdine was having trouble hanging on to the ball in the first half, and the Gaels took advantage of Wave errors to build an 18-9 lead with 12:28 remaining in the half. But Pepperdine, despite committing 14 turnovers by the break, came back to take a 40-31 halftime lead.

Dexter Howard scored on a breakaway dunk to give the Waves a 25-24 lead with 6:01 left in the half. After that, Pepperdine pulled steadily away, outscoring the tiring Gaels, 15-7, the rest of the half.

“We were real careless with the ball in the first half, but we rebounded real competitively,” said Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury. “We were a little bit sluggish to start with, but I would rather finish strong.”

The Waves cut down on turnovers in the second half, finishing with 23. Pepperdine, after outrebounding the Gaels, 25-14, in the first half, finished with a 52-33 advantage on the boards.

Pepperdine shot 54.4% from the field (31 of 57) to 34.3% (24 of 70) for the Gaels.

Howard and Tom Lewis each scored 19 points to lead the Waves. Craig Davis added 15 points, and Geoff Lear had a game-high 12 rebounds and 12 points.