Pepperdine Shakes Off Any Rust and Santa Clara

These 13 days didn’t exactly lead to a crisis.

The calendar might have shown otherwise, but it looked like very little time had passed since Pepperdine last played a basketball game.

Coming off nearly two weeks of inactivity because of a scheduling quirk, Pepperdine looked fine in an 87-66 victory over Santa Clara in a West Coast Conference opener Friday night at Pepperdine.

Thanks to the shooting of reserve David Lalazarian, the Waves circumvented a so-so showing by Brandon Armstrong to win easily.

Lalazarian scored 22 points, one shy of his career high, and the Waves (9-5) looked nothing like a team whose last game was Dec. 30.

Lalazarian started at small forward early in the season, but was relegated to the bench, where he has found a comfort zone.

“A lot of teams like to have a sparkplug off the bench,” said Pepperdine Coach Jan van Breda Kolff, who called Lalazarian the Waves’ version of John Havlicek. “Hopefully he felt like Havlicek [Friday night]. He looked like him and he shot like him.”

The same couldn’t be said for anybody from Santa Clara (8-8).

The recent shooting slump continued for Broncos’ guard Brian Jones, who came into the game on a 15-for-57 slide and made only two of nine shots for 10 points.

“They outplayed us, outshot us, outhustled us and outrebounded us,” said Jones, who played at Wilmington Banning High. “Obviously, you could tell by the score that they wanted it more.”

Van Breda Kolff said he was surprised by Pepperdine’s strong shooting (53.3%) in the first half.

The Waves’ only game-like action during the break was a scrimmage last Saturday.

Pepperdine continued to excel in its recently unveiled three-guard, two-forward offense, holding Santa Clara to 40% shooting and forcing 18 turnovers.

Santa Clara trailed, 54-47, with 13:22 to play, but Lalazarian sparked an 11-0 run by scoring seven points in a 1:42 span.

“In our conference, a lot of teams are going to be keying on Brandon and Kelvin [Gibbs], which gives me a crack to get in there,” said Lalazarian, who made nine of 12 shots.

Playing in front of a cadre of NBA scouts, Armstrong scored only two points in the first 13 minutes and finished with 13 points on five of 15 shooting.

The game was delayed 10 minutes when referee Byrne Haskins fell with 10:04 left to play, suffering a mild concussion.

The Waves host San Diego tonight.