Pepperdine Comes up Short Against Richmond

Nov 19, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; Pepperdine Waves celebrate during a timeout in the second half as San Jose State Spartans guard Jordan Baker (1) looks on at San Jose State Event Center. The Waves won 63-44. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The Pepperdine Waves lost a tight game against the Richmond Spiders by a score of 65-63 in the Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden.  Shawn Olden led the Waves with 13 points, while Jeremy Major added a dozen points and Stacy Davis contributed 11 points.  Atif Russell added 8 points and a team high 3 assists off the bench.

Richmond was paced by TJ Cline, who scored 13 points on 6/6 shooting off the bench.  Trey Davis and Allen Terry each added 11 points, while Davis also had 5 steals.

In a contest that was close throughout, Richmond took a 60-54 lead with 2:50 left in the ball game.  Shawn Olden had a 3 point play that cut the Spiders’ lead to one with less than a minute left, but the Waves were unable to tie the game at the end of regulation when Olden’s potential buzzer beater did not fall.

Stat of the Night

Stacy Davis’ 4/11 shooting really hurt the Waves in a game where most statistical categories were very even.  He is by far the Waves’ best player and if he has an off night, other players need to score more than they normally do, and no Pepperdine player was able to do that.

Moving Forward

Pepperdine still had a fairly strong non-conference schedule, and they’ll face IUPUI next Saturday before opening league play next Monday against LMU.  The Waves still do not have a bad loss on their schedule, so they should be in pretty good shape to make it to the CBI or the CIT in March if they can win at least 8 or 9 conference games.