Pepperdine Prevails on Johnson’s Prayer : Men’s basketball: His off-balance three-point basket becomes four-point play and an 80-76 victory over San Jose State.

Even with an incredible game by Gerald Brown, the Pepperdine basketball team still needed an incredible shot by Marques Johnson to beat San Jose State, 80-76, in a nonconference game Saturday afternoon.

Johnson, 22 feet from the basket with three seconds on the shot clock, swished a desperation three-point shot as he was fouled with 46 seconds to play.

He converted the four-point play to extend a three-point lead to seven, taking the air out of the Spartans and the 1,015 fans in attendance.

“I wasn’t really trying to make it,” Johnson said with a smile. “I was just trying to draw a foul. I knew I was off balance. I was praying.”

The Waves (6-3) were in position to win, though, because of Brown, who put on a shooting clinic. The junior from Phoenix scored a career-high 35 points, making 14 of 16 shots, including all four of his three-point attempts.

“I was just letting it go,” Brown said. “I was just lucky to have them falling today.”

Brown hit his first 11 shots, not missing until the 6:21 mark of the second half. Of his two misses, only one made it to the rim. The other was blocked.

“I think Brown was sensational, absolutely sensational,” said Stan Morrison, San Jose State coach. “Very, very impressive.”

But without Morrison’s help, the Waves still might have come up short.

After the Spartans’ Roy Hammonds, who scored 31 points, made a layup to pull San Jose State to within 78-76 with three seconds left, Morrison called a timeout, though the Spartans had none remaining.

Morrison said after the game he knew his team was out of timeouts, but he wanted to stop the clock, even if it meant taking a technical foul. He was afraid the Waves could run out the clock without inbounding the ball.

Morrison, a former USC coach, forgot that a recent rule change calls for the clock to stop after made baskets in the final minute of regulation.

“That was a mistake on my part,” said Morrison, whose team dropped to 1-6.

The Waves continue to bury memories of last season. Saturday’s victory was their third on the road; last season the Waves were 0-11 away from home.

Pepperdine shot 53% from the field and 71% from three-point range. In the past five games, the team has shot a combined 52%.

The Waves were fortunate, though, that the Spartans shot only 41%, because they dominated on the boards, collecting 25 offensive rebounds, against only 22 defensive rebounds for Pepperdine.

On the series that led to Hammonds’ final layup, the Spartans took six shots.

Pepperdine led for much of the first half, largely because of Brown and Johnson. In the first 20 minutes, Brown was eight for eight from the floor for 20 points and Johnson was four for seven for 12 points.

They scored all but six of the Waves’ first-half points.

The Waves took a 34-26 lead after a 10-1 run that included three-pointers by Brown and Johnson. But the Spartans tied the game, 38-38, at halftime on Tito Addison’s buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Pepperdine came out of the locker room and made its first six shots, bolting to a 53-44 lead.

The Spartans made charge after charge until the end, but Pepperdine answered every challenge.