Pepperdine Has Reserve Power in Victory Over San Francisco

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.”

The game was back-and-forth for the first 28 minutes, with 10 lead changes, seven ties and neither team taking a lead bigger than six. But with 12 minutes to play, Sheppard’s put-back gave the Waves the lead for good at 52-50.

Sheppard, who fell one point short of his season high, scored five of the next 10 for Pepperdine.

Gardner’s 20 gave him consecutive 20-point games for the first time this season. He had 20 against Santa Clara Friday.

Almost half of those came down the stretch, as he scored nine of the Waves’ final 12 points, making four free throws in the final 22 seconds to secure the victory.

“That’s my role,” said Gardner, who was nine of nine from the free-throw line. “In the end, they’re going to be trying to press you. The coach relies on me to make the right decisions and get the right man in the position to score.

“And if they’re going to foul, foul me, because I feel confident at the free-throw line.”

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