Pepperdine Draws on Reserves

Lorenzo Romar said his bench was the best in his three seasons as coach at Pepperdine, and Saturday night against San Francisco, the bench had its best performance in four West Coast Conference games in a 79-70 victory before 2,418 at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Starters Jelani Gardner and Kelvin Gibbs scored 20 and 17, respectively, but Pepperdine’s four reserves outscored its other starters, 29-13, and were the difference in the game.

Junior Nick Sheppard scored 13, freshman Ross Varner grabbed a career-high eight rebounds, and juniors Tezale Archie and Robert Fomby combined for seven assists and three steals to lift the Waves (12-7, 3-1 WCC).

“Our bench was excellent tonight,” Romar said. “We had really good bench production our first three or four games, then it dropped off a little bit.

“But tonight, it picked back up again.”

The victory gave the Waves a home sweep of the Dons (8-11, 0-4) and Santa Clara, and showed Romar that Pepperdine was over a 31-point loss to first-place Gonzaga a week ago.

“We could’ve gone either way after that shellacking Gonzaga gave us,” he said. “I think our guys rebounded with flying colors. Now, that’s in the back of our minds.”

Sheppard agreed. “[The sweep] was real big,” the Louisiana State transfer said. “We needed that coming off Gonzaga to let people know we’re still in the running for first place.”

San Francisco’s Gerald Zimmerman, who scored a career-high 32 against Loyola Marymount Friday, scored a game-high 31 against Pepperdine.