Up by 20, Waves Come Crashing Down, 56-54

A little prosperity was more than Pepperdine’s basketball team could handle Saturday night.

The Waves, in their worst collapse of the season, squandered a 20-point, second-half lead and lost to San Francisco, 56-54, after center Booker T. Washington made two free throws with 18 seconds to play in a West Coast Conference game before 3,722 at Memorial Gymnasium.

Pepperdine (7-7, 0-2 in conference play) got off three shots in the final seconds, but a jump shot by Marques Johnson, a follow by Gerald Brown and a tip-in try by Bryan Hill all failed.

“It’s real tough,” said a teary-eyed Hill after the game. “To come out and play as hard as we did in the first half and let the game slip out of our hands, I can’t explain it. We failed.”

Pepperdine shot a scorching 65.4% (17 of 26) in the first half, when it built a 39-22 lead, but made only five of 17 shots in the second half to finish at 51.2%.

The Waves made nine turnovers in the second half.

“We played well in the first half, but I knew [San Francisco] would make a run, and they did,” said Pepperdine Coach Tony Fuller, whose team suffered its third consecutive defeat.

The Waves led, 49-29, with 14 minutes 9 seconds left, but went scoreless for nearly nine minutes as San Francisco (9-6, 2-1) went on a 17-0 run sparked by its reserves, who outscored Pepperdine, 11-0, during a five-minute stretch. The Dons ended the game with a 27-5 run.

San Francisco Coach Phil Mathews said he went to his bench because he became angry at his starters.

“I said, ‘Who wants to play?’ and five guys raised their hands,” said Mathews, the former Ventura College coach. “I didn’t care who it was. If it was five guys in the stands, I would have sent them in.

“Pepperdine was killing us. We had to make a change. If we had left the starters in there, it would have been a blowout.”

Instead, the reserves pulled San Francisco to within 49-40 when Mathews reinserted his starters with 8:09 left.

“It was a good move,” Fuller said. “[Mathews] is a great coach.”

Inspired, the Don starters took over down the stretch, gradually whittling away at Pepperdine’s lead.

John Duggan gave the Dons their first lead, 54-53, on a three-point basket with 1:03 left. Duggan scored 16 points, including four three-pointers.

Brown tied the game, 54-54, when he made one of two free throws with 46 seconds left.

While San Francisco got hot in the second half, hitting 55% of its shots including five of six three-pointers, it was just the opposite in the first half.

The Dons went more than eight minutes without a basket and had only seven at intermission.

Pepperdine rolled to a 10-0 lead by making its first four shots, including two three-pointers by Johnson, who scored 13 points. The Waves led by as many as 19 points in the first half.