Kansas Whips Sloppy Pepperdine

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury, tired of seeing his team play well and lose, saw it play poorly and lose, 88-62, to Kansas before 2,901 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu Wednesday night.

Pepperdine (6-7) made a game of it in the first half and part of the second, even though it committed 13 turnovers in the half.

Kansas (7-2) led at halftime, 40-33, but the Jayhawks kept up their defensive pressure in the second half and broke the game open.

About four minutes into the second half, Pepperdine had pulled within 50-47. But Kansas went on a 21-0 run to take a 71-47 lead.

“With all due respect, this (Kansas) is not UCLA,” Asbury said. “This is not Arizona--but they definitely may be better on defense than anyone we played. As poorly as we played, we were still in the game (in the second half), but their defense took us right out of the game.”

Pepperdine, which has lost three consecutive games for the first time since Asbury became coach three years ago, finished with 23 turnovers.

Kansas, which has won seven of its last eight games, had 11 steals.

The Waves shot 60.9% in the first half, but were limited to 23 attempts, making 14. Kansas shot 48.5% in the first half (16 of 33), but made 18 of 29 in the second half (62.1%).

For the Jayhawks, Mark Randall scored a game-high 23 points, Terry Brown added 18 points, and Alonzo Jamison had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Doug Christie led Pepperdine with 18 points.