Pepperdine Falls to IUPUI at Home

Dec 13, 2014; Tempe, AZ, USA; Pepperdine Waves Guard Shawn Olden (21) drives to the basket against the Arizona State Sun Devils during the second half at Wells-Fargo Arena. Sun Devils defeated the Waves 81-74 Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

The Pepperdine Waves played a poor game and lost at home to the IUPUI Jaguars by a score of 55-53.  Shawn Olden led the Waves with 15 points and 4 assists while Jeremy Major added 14 points, but both picked up 4 fouls in the game.  Stacy Davis struggled with just 10 points on 4/10 shooting, though he did pull down 10 rebounds.  Jett Raines added 8 points and 8 rebounds in the losing effort.

IUPUI was led by DavRon Williams off the bench with 16 points on 6/10 shooting and 9 rebounds.  Aaron Brennan added 10 points, Khufu Najee added 9 points off the bench, and point guard Marcellus Barksdale had a good night dishing the ball with 7 assists and just one turnover to go with 7 rebounds.

Pepperdine started out quickly with a 7-1 lead two minutes in, but Jeremy Major picked up his second foul with 17:05 left in the first half.  Backups Amadi Udenyi and Lamond Murray were ineffective with many missed shots and turnovers, and the Jaguars were able to come back to take a 28-27 halftime lead, as Major played a lot of the first half cautiously with two fouls.

IUPUI’s momentum continued into the second half, and their lead got as big as 7 with 8:27 remaining in the game.   Major and Davis helped lead a late second half Wave comeback, but they never got closer than a one point deficit.  Olden and Major both had shots to tie or win the game in the final seconds with Pepperdine down by 2 points, but neither fell and the Waves suffered a disappointing loss.

Stat of the Night

Bench points were the deciding factor in this game.  IUPUI’s bench, led by Williams, scored 35 points on 45% shooting (13/29), while Pepperdine’s bench scored 6 points on 8% shooting (1/12).  If Davis is going to have an off game for Pepperdine, the Waves need to get scoring from other unexpected sources.  Any offense off the bench is a bonus for Pepperdine, and since they got none of that, they struggled offensively against a team that wanted the game to be played in the 50s.

Moving Forward

Pepperdine will look to get their offense back on track against another offensively-challenged team, the Loyola Marymount Lions, in their conference opener on Monday.  If Stacy Davis can play at the high level he is capable of, the Waves shouldn’t have too much trouble with the Lions.