Surprise Hero Helps San Diego Tip Pepperdine

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury thought that a steady diet of tough opponents would benefit his team when it began West Coast Conference play.

But the University of San Diego proved to be hard to swallow Friday night in the Waves’ conference opener before 2,674 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Still, the Toreros, who threatened to run away with the game several times, had to hold off a Pepperdine rally before escaping with a 91-88 victory.

San Diego, which ended a two-game losing streak, improved to 8-6 overall and is 1-1 in the conference. Pepperdine is 6-8 after its fourth consecutive loss.

It took an unlikely hero, sophomore guard Geoff Probst, to provide San Diego with its winning margin.

Probst, who had been sidelined for five games because of a broken ring finger on his right (shooting) hand, made a driving layup in traffic that gave the Toreros a 90-86 lead with 38 seconds to play. He was fouled on the play and missed the free throw. At that point he had missed all 10 of his free throws this season.

But he hit his next opportunity. After Pepperdine had pulled within 90-88 on a rebound basket by Geoff Lear, the Waves called a timeout with 23 seconds remaining.

Probst brought the ball upcourt after play resumed, was fouled and made the front end of a one-and-one opportunity to seal the victory.

“Just luck, I guess,” he said of hitting his first free throw of the season. When he was getting ready to shoot the free throw, he said, “I was thinking 0 for 11.”

Everything was going San Diego’s way early. The Toreros led, 21-14, after about seven minutes.

But the Waves went on a 15-4 run, taking a 29-25 lead with 8:52 left in the half. Pepperdine built its biggest lead of the game at 39-34, but San Diego surged again and held a 52-48 advantage at halftime.

The Toreros started the second half by outscoring the Waves, 12-4, and took a 64-52 lead. A turnaround jump shot by Kelvin Woods, who finished with 21 points, gave the Toreros their biggest lead of the game, 80-67.

But the Waves kept coming back, only to turn the ball over several times when they had opportunities to tie or take the lead.

Asbury said, “I think they let us back in, but they capitalized at the end and we didn’t.

“If we’re going to be a contender, we can’t let them get us down like that and expect to win.”

Anthony Thomas led the Toreros with 24 points. Doug Christie scored a game-high 29 points for Pepperdine, and Geoff Lear added 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.