Pepperdine Struggles, Falls Again

Tony Fuller, Pepperdine’s first-year basketball coach, didn’t want to believe the naysayers who insisted that the Waves would probably struggle this season with young, inexperienced players.

“Everybody said it, but I was like, no, no, no, we’re going to be all right,” he said. “But I guess the reality is something a little different.”

Indeed. Pepperdine is 1-4 after Tuesday night’s 70-63 loss to UC Santa Barbara at Firestone Fieldhouse, its worst start since the 1973-74 season, when it lost its first five games en route to an 8-18 record.

And the Waves, who have made 12 postseason appearances in the last 16 seasons, have yet to defeat a Division I opponent.

“The key to our team is, we have no superstars or anybody that’s any better than anyone else,” said Fuller, whose team is 0-4 since defeating Cal State Dominguez Hills in its opener. “We need a team effort from everybody. We had a couple of guys who didn’t really give us much tonight.”

The Waves made a season-low 35.4% of their shots and never led again after center Doug Muse, who scored 10 points to lead a balanced Santa Barbara attack, made a baseline jumper to start an 8-0 run that gave the Gauchos a 25-18 advantage 7 1/2 minutes before halftime.

Santa Barbara (3-0) built its lead to 43-30 early in the second half before Pepperdine rallied behind reserve forward LeRoi O’Brien, who scored all seven of his points and took all but one of his eight rebounds after halftime.

The Waves cut their deficit to 54-52, but Santa Barbara made 12 of 14 free throws in the last 8 1/2 minutes to hold them off.

“I thought we executed pretty well in the second half,” Fuller said of the Waves, who made 44.8% of their shots in the second half after making only 27.8% before halftime.

“But we needed to make a big play, needed to make a big shot. And we didn’t do it.”

Growing pains?

“Everybody says we’ve got a young team, but I never want to make an excuse,” Fuller said. “They’ve got five guys, just like we’ve got five. You have to go out there and play.”