Lewis Makes Presence Felt as Waves Defeat Santa Clara, 81-67

The presence of Tom Lewis in Pepperdine’s lineup against Santa Clara made a difference Friday night--just as his absence did against the same team in January.

Without Lewis, who had been briefly suspended, the Waves lost at Santa Clara, 72-70. With him--and his 21 points--Pepperdine coasted to an 81-67 victory before 2,547 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Pepperdine, which improved to 15-11 and 9-4 in the West Coast Conference, pulled into a tie for second place in the conference with the University of San Diego, which lost Friday night to Loyola Marymount. The Broncos fell to 9-17 and 6-7.

The Waves led by as many as 11 points in the first half but started turning the ball over and let the Broncos back in the game.

Pepperdine led at halftime, 35-34, and a layup by 7-foot center Ron Reis gave Santa Clara a 36-35 advantage in the first minute of the second half. But that was the last time the Broncos led.

In the next 5 1/2 minutes, the Waves outscored Santa Clara, 19-8, and took a 56-44 lead with 13:09 to play.

The Broncos’ Jeffty Connelly scored a game-high 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting, but his teammates shot 39.7% from the field. The Waves shot 51%.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said that his team “obviously did not have the same degree of emotion that we did (in an upset of) Loyola Marymount” last Saturday.

“But in the first 15 minutes of the second half, we played very well,” Asbury said. “We created a lot of offense with our defense, we stopped turning the ball over, and we shared the ball.

“The main thing we did was to start fronting Reis in the second half, and they weren’t getting a lot of the stuff they were getting in the first half.”

Reis finished with nine points and eight rebounds but made only three of 10 free throws.

Lewis made his 21 points on seven-of-12 shooting, Dexter Howard scored 20 on seven-of-10 shooting, Geoff Lear added 14 points and Shann Ferch had 10 points. Besides Connelly, no other Bronco scored in double figures.

When Pepperdine lost to Santa Clara on Jan. 11, it fell behind, 14-0. Lewis had begun serving a three-game suspension for a curfew violation.

But Lewis played plenty Friday night, and he scored nine points in the first half.

The Waves led most of the half and held a 27-16 advantage with 8:35 remaining.

But in the next six minutes, the Broncos outscored Pepperdine, 14-4, to pull to within a point at 31-30.

Doug Christie made a three-point shot for Pepperdine, but Rodney Brown answered with another three-point basket, tying the score, 33-33. Connelly had 13 of his points in the first half.