San Francisco Hit by Tidal Wave, 63-58

What was shaping up as a forgettable week for Pepperdine ended with a memorable victory Saturday night.

Struggling guards Gerald Brown and Jelani Gardner scored Pepperdine’s last 13 points and rallied the Waves from an 11-point deficit in the final nine minutes to defeat San Francisco, 63-58, in a West Coast Conference game at Memorial Gym.

The stunning victory, which ended the Dons’ 13-game home winning streak, wasn’t secure until Gardner rebounded a missed three-point shot by San Francisco’s Ali Thomas and made two free throws with one second left.

Lorenzo Romar called it his biggest victory in two seasons as Pepperdine coach.

“Because of what was at stake,” he said. “It was 911. We could not afford to lose this game. We want to win the conference championship.”

The Waves (10-6, 2-2 in WCC play) salvaged a split in their Bay Area road trip--after losing at Santa Clara on Friday--despite falling behind, 46-35, with 9:36 to play when Hakeem Ward scored on a layup to complete a 10-1 run for San Francisco (11-5, 2-2).

Pepperdine allowed the Dons only four baskets the rest of the way and relied on Brown and Gardner down the stretch. Gardner’s first basket after missing his first five shots got the Waves to within 56-54 with 3:29 left.

Brown, who was two for 10 at that point, followed with a jump shot to tie the score and made a three-point basket after a steal by Bryan Hill to put the Waves ahead for good, 59-56, with 1:26 left. It was their first lead of the half.

Two free throws by Gardner made it 61-58 with 37 seconds left, setting up San Francisco’s last possession. Following a timeout, Pepperdine twice knocked passes out of bounds, leading to another timeout with eight seconds left. Thomas’ one-handed, three-point try missed badly.

“We did a great job defending,” Romar said. “We began to contain them and we started to get stops.”

Hill scored 16 points for Pepperdine, 11 coming in the second half. Tommie Prince added 11 and Gardner had 10.

Pepperdine’s comeback is more impressive when you consider the Waves were down to seven scholarship players because center omm’A Givens was serving the second of a two-game suspension.

“Not one time did our guys put their heads down,” Romar said. “No one panicked. We continued to scrap.”

San Francisco Coach Phil Mathews said the Waves stole one.

“We didn’t make some plays and they did,” said Mathews, a former Ventura College coach. “It was a situation where they just took the game.”

Ward, who played for Mathews at Ventura, and M.J. Nodilo each scored 15 points for the Dons, who lost to the Waves for the first time in six games.

Good shots were hard to come by in the first half, which ended with San Francisco leading, 26-24. Pepperdine opened a 5-0 lead but made only 10 of 28 shots in the half.