Pepperdine Quietly Handles Jacksonville, 75-69

In a quiet gym, devoid of a student body that had left for Christmas vacation, Geoff Lear scored 13 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, and Pepperdine eventually shook off stubborn Jacksonville to escape with a 75-69 victory Saturday.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury, whose team was coming off a 108-85 loss to fifth-ranked UCLA, said the Waves may have been “feeling the effects a little bit” of the loss to the Bruins.

That may explain why Pepperdine (6-4) had trouble with Jacksonville (4-5), but it doesn’t explain why the Dolphins played as well as they did.

Asbury said Jacksonville may have felt it was playing at home. He said that the lack of fans “was not a hostile environment” for the Dolphins. “That’s not much of a home-court advantage,” Asbury said.

He said that Sun Belt Conference officials worked at Jacksonville’s insistance, but that he didn’t think the officials had affected the game.

Though shooting only 36.5%, the Dolphins outscrapped Pepperdine most of the night and took 74 shots to only 56 for the Waves. Jacksonville made many of its baskets on second and third efforts.

Pepperdine led at halftime, 35-32, and didn’t get much farther ahead the rest of the game.

The Dolpins pulled within one point five times in the second half. A five-foot jump shot by Anthony Powell gave Jacksonville a 43-40 lead with 13:55 remaining.

But a three-point shot by Steve Guild, who finished with 10 points, tied it, 43-43. And Lear followed with a layup, putting the Waves ahead for good.

Reggie Law, who scored a team-high 19 points, made a 12-foot jump shot, and Jacksonville pulled within 58-57 with 3:19 left. But Pepperdine made 11 of 15 free throws in the last three minutes and held off the Dolphins.

“We’re still having trouble protecting out leads,” Asbury said. “But we did make our free throws down the stretch, which is half the battle.”