Pepperdine Makes Big Impression

This time, Brandon Armstrong didn’t score 40.

He didn’t need to.

Pepperdine proved to be more than a one-man band, spreading the glory as easily as it parted the Loyola Marymount defense during a 75-54 victory Saturday in a West Coast Conference basketball game before 2,467 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Balance was the word tossed around after the game, and a season that once hung in the balance has now been recaptured and rescued by Pepperdine, 12-5 overall and 4-0 in the WCC. The Waves have won six in a row..

Armstrong, a highlight show in the Waves’ 81-65 victory over the Lions on Wednesday, scored 17 points Saturday. David Lalazarian, as good a sixth man as there is in the conference, had 11. Kelvin Gibbs had 13.

“We knew they were going come out and stick on Brandon,” Gibbs said. “But we know we’ve got a lot of other people who can score.”

They did.

Gibbs and Lalazarian each had five points during a 13-0 run that gave the Waves a 22-7 lead with 10:20 left in the first half. Loyola Marymount, which made only six of 22 shots in the first half, never came closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Pepperdine forced 24 turnovers, 14 in the first half.

“They’re like sharks when they smell blood with their pressing style of play,” Loyola Marymount Coach Steve Aggers said. “Then it went from bad to worse.”

Loyola Marymount (5-12, 1-3) made only 18 of 40 free throws in losing its third consecutive game since upsetting San Diego in a WCC opener.