Waves Fuel Rally to Keep Streak Going : Basketball: Without three players, they defeat San Francisco for their 36th consecutive conference victory.

Byron Jenson couldn’t have picked a better night to have his best offensive performance at Pepperdine.

Jenson, a senior forward, scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Waves to a comeback 71-66 victory Saturday night over the University of San Francisco before 3,618 at Memorial Gymnasium.

The victory extended Pepperdine’s record West Coast Conference winning streak to 36 games. It is the longest current conference streak in NCAA Division I.

The victory, which improved Pepperdine’s record to 12-3 overall and 3-0 in the conference, came on the heels of a trying week for the Waves.

The bad news started Monday, when freshmen Jamal Lawrence and Tabari Johnson were dismissed from Pepperdine for violating university rules. On Wednesday, the Waves lost starting guard Damin Lopez for at least six weeks because of a broken hand.

That made the victory even more satisfying to Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury.

“Of all the games I’ve coached, I don’t remember a victory that I’ve been more proud of,” Asbury said. “We didn’t just lose one player, we lost three and we still won. But this team is very resilient and they showed that tonight.”

Pepperdine began sluggishly. The Waves trailed most of the first half, falling behind, 29-20, on a basket by forward Kent Bennett with 5:20 remaining until halftime.

But the Waves went on a 13-4 run in the final 4:42 to tie the score, 33-33, at halftime. Steve Guild, who switched from forward to guard and made his first start of the season, made a jumper with one second remaining for the tying basket.

The teams exchanged leads in the second half before forward Dana Jones put the Waves ahead to stay on a layup that gave them a 55-54 advantage with 7:18 remaining.

Pepperdine led by 67-59 with 1:55 remaining on a dunk by Jenson. But the Waves helped secure the victory by making four of six free throws during the final minute.

“They made the good plays down the stretch and that’s what it takes to win games like this,” San Francisco Coach Jim Brovelli said.

In addition to Jenson, the Waves were led by center Derek Noether with 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds, Jones with 15 points and seven rebounds and point guard Bryan Parker with 12 points.

“Collectively, we knew we had to make up the slack for losing 15 points and 40 minutes from our starting lineup,” Asbury said. “Byron was one of the guys who came through for us and so was Bryan.”

Asbury was especially pleased to see the scoring production from Parker, who has slumped most of the season.

“We started talking to Bryan about scoring more prior to Damin (being injured) and he’s a player who can score,” Asbury said. “But he’s got to shoot it more. It’s just a case of his mechanics and now he realizes that he has to score more.”

San Francisco (11-6, 1-2) lost despite having five players score in double figures. Point guard Orlando Smart had 12 points, and Booker Washington and Bennett added 11 each.