Brown Carries Waves Over San Francisco
Even if all the news wasn’t good, Pepperdine found something to celebrate Friday night.
On the day Pepperdine announced that center omm’A Givens has been suspended for the rest of the season, guard Gerald Brown returned to form.
Shaking off a recent shooting slump, Brown scored 19 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to spark the Waves to a 65-61 West Coast Conference victory over San Francisco before 1,536 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.
Brown, who started the game shooting 38.7% in conference games, made 10 of 18 shots, including eight of 13 in the second half as the Waves, 14-9 overall and 6-5 in the WCC, ended a two-game losing streak.
San Francisco (13-10, 4-7) pulled to within 63-61 on a layup by Damian Cantrell with 41 seconds left. Brown worked the shot clock down before missing a jumper. But Hill got the rebound, and Jelani Gardner made two free throws with 1.3 seconds left.
Pepperdine Coach Lorenzo Romar, whose team plays host to conference co-leader Santa Clara at 5 p.m. today, said he expects the Waves to keep their focus.
“It’s not the ideal situation, but we have to play the hand we were dealt,” he said. “Our guys did a great job of sucking it up tonight.”
Without the 6-foot-11 Givens, Pepperdine has only seven scholarship players and no one taller than 6-7.
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