Pepperdine Needs a Big Rally to Defeat Brigham Young-Hawaii

Kelvin Gibbs scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half to lift Pepperdine to a come-from-behind 72-63 victory Wednesday over Brigham Young-Hawaii in the seventh-place game of the Pearl Harbor Classic.

The Waves (7-5) trailed by as much as 13 points in the first half with BYU-Hawaii’s front line of David Evans and Earl Smith doing most of the damage.

It was 35-26 at the half, but Gibbs scored 10 consecutive points at the start of the second half to put the Waves back into the game.

It wasn’t until David Lalazarian’s free throw at the 9:44 mark that Pepperdine took the lead for the first time.

Ross Varner and Gibbs, who made eight of 10 shots and had a team-high seven rebounds, followed with baskets to make it 55-50.

BYU-Hawaii (5-4) could get no closer than two points.

The Waves shot 40% in the first half (eight of 20), but rebounded with a 64% (16 of 25) effort in the second half. It was the reverse for BYU-Hawaii, which made half of its 28 shots in the first half, but dropped to nine of 24 (38%) in the second half.

Jelani Gardner contributed 16 points and Marc McDowell 12 for Pepperdine. Evans had 24 and Smith 12 for the Seasiders.