Pepperdine Proves It Has Answer

With the West Coast Conference season approaching, Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury had his concerns about the Waves before Tuesday night’s nonconference game against North Carolina Charlotte.

But Pepperdine answered a lot of questions with a 72-61 victory over the 49ers before 1,866 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Asbury said the Waves (7-4) played perhaps their best defensive game of the season after they had suffered narrow losses to Texas El Paso and Iowa State last week at El Paso.

It was only the second loss in nine games for the 49ers, who defeated Pepperdine’s WCC rival Santa Clara to win the Cable Car Classic last week.

“That was the best game we’ve played all season,” Asbury said. “We played hard and we played smart against a good basketball team.”

Junior forward Jarvis Lang kept the 49ers close by scoring 21 of his game-high 26 points in the second half.

After the Waves led by 27-18 at halftime, the 49ers pulled to within two at 45-43 on a dunk by Lang with 8:54. But Pepperdine went on a 9-0 run to regain control.

“I have to give Pepperdine credit, but I was very disappointed with the way we came out in the first half,” Coach Jeff Mullins said. “We had 13 turnovers and we lost our concentration.”

Pepperdine was led by Dana Jones with 20 points, Derek Noether with 19 and Damin Lopez with 18, including 16 in the second half.