Pepperdine Finally Wins Close One, 81-80

Too many close losses had Pepperdine feeling less than joyous heading into the holiday break. With another tight contest Saturday afternoon against Bradley, the Waves needed to do something to reverse their fortunes.

Glen McGowan’s dunk off a pass from Shaun Davis with 2.4 seconds remaining gave Pepperdine an 81-80 nonconference victory before an estimated 1,000 at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves (4-6) had won only twice in their last seven games and were 0-4 in games decided by four points or fewer.

“It’s so obvious that we needed to win a close game so badly,” Coach Paul Westphal said. “It wouldn’t have been a very good Christmas if we lost another close one.”

Pepperdine erased a four-point deficit in the final 66 seconds. Terrence Johnson made a three-pointer to cut the Braves’ lead to one.

On the next possession, McGowan forced Marcellus Somerville into missing a three-point try with 20 seconds remaining. The Waves, not using a timeout, got the ball into the hands of Davis, their freshman point guard.

Davis worked his way into the lane but was surrounded by four defenders. He found McGowan cutting along the baseline and the junior forward completed the play.

“We’ve been in so many situations like this,” said McGowan, who led Pepperdine with 24 points. “We weren’t stressing because we’ve been in five, six or seven games like this. This one had to go our way.

“Somerville said I wasn’t going to get that ball. Me and Shaun just made eye contact and went back door with a perfect pass.”

Said Bradley Coach Jim Les: “He bailed them out with a big play.”

Bradley (7-3) opened the game with a 19-5 blitz. Westphal called three timeouts in the first 10 minutes but they didn’t stop the Braves from grabbing a 30-14 lead.

When the Waves failed to rotate on defense and allowed an uncontested layup to James Gillingham, Westphal fired his clipboard to the ground and went deep into his bench, playing little-used Chase Griffin.

“I had no more cards to play at that point,” Westphal said. “Strategy didn’t matter at that point and we just had to do something different. I haven’t broken [a clipboard] in a long time.”

Phillip Gilbert had a game-high 25 points for Bradley and Gillingham added 24.