Anteaters Force Pepperdine to Sweat Out 50-46 Victory

Raw ability finally won out.

Pepperdine certainly had the preseason reputation. It also had more talent, more quickness and more height than UC Irvine. With all that going for them, the Waves probably expected more than a 50-46 victory over the Anteaters in front of 2,268 in the Bren Center.

But it was enough, in the end, to have survived.

“That was a tough, grind it out game,” Pepperdine Coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Our guys stepped it up and made some big plays down the stretch. That was a game we would have lost last year.”

Irvine (0-2), on the other hand, would have been run off the court by halftime against such talent a year ago. The difference in the two teams could be judged by their UCLA transfers. Pepperdine has 6-foot-11 omm’A Givens. Irvine has 6-1 walk-on Jason Flowers, who didn’t even try to play for the Bruins.

Givens and transfer Jelani Gardner (California), plus the return of All-West Coast Conference guard Gerald Brown (knee injury), make the Waves significantly better than last season, when they finished 6-21.

Yet the Anteaters kept pace with them.

It wasn’t until Brown sank a 10-foot jumper for a 48-44 lead with 24.9 seconds left that a victory for Pepperdine (1-0) seemed secure. Irvine’s Junior Bond missed a three-point attempt and Gardner was fouled. His two free throws with 17.2 seconds left ended Irvine’s upset hopes.

“I couldn’t have been prouder if we won the game,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said. “We did everything we could to win this game. We were asking kids to play above their abilities at this stage of the season.”

Not to mention above their size.

Irvine, which has lost 14 consecutive games, did not have a starter taller than 6 feet 7. The Waves’ shortest starter was 6-4. The Anteaters’ size disadvantage became more glaring, as 6-9 forward Matt Willard was diagnosed with mononucleosis before the game and is out indefinitely. That left 6-10 Andrew Carlson as their only inside player. He went scoreless in seven minutes.

Yet the Waves had only a 35-31 rebound advantage.

Givens scored 12 points, but was surrounded when he had the ball down low. Gardner, at 6-6, was guarded by the 5-8 Bond through much of the game, but made only one of eight shots and scored five points.

What perimeter offense Pepperdine got came from Brown (13 points) and Tommie Prince (11 points).

“That team came out and decided they were going to make it a half-court game and they did a heck of a job doing it,” Romar said.

Ben Jones scored 15 points and Juma Jackson 14 for Irvine. Jackson had eight in the second half, including a layup with 3:09 left to tie the score, 42-42. Prince then scored on a layup and Irvine’s Adam Stetson was called for traveling. Givens sank two free throws for a 46-42 lead.

“How can we be satisfied?” said Ben Jones, who scored 15 points. “It’s tough to take. We should have won that game.”

They might have, had they shot better. The Anteaters shot 38% from the field and missed 19 of 23 three-point attempts. Pepperdine shot 37% from the field.

Pepperdine led, 24-21, at halftime, but only because Irvine got sloppy. The Anteaters were leading, 19-18, but turned the ball over on six consecutive possessions. The Waves could only convert those mistakes into six points, four by Givens.

The Anteaters led through most of the first half. They went up, 15-10, on a jumper by Bond with 8:16 left in the half.

Jones had seven points in the first half to led Irvine.

“You’re asking a lot of players not recruited by big schools to play like they are Pac-10 players,” Douglass said. “Look at us again after eight games.”