Men's Basketball | 1/3/2009 6:44:25 PM
Box Score MALIBU, Calif. - The Western Oregon University men's basketball team fell 77-67 at Pepperdine Saturday, Jan. 3.
The loss dropped the Wolves' record to 6-4 on the season as the NCAA Division I Waves moved to 3-13.
Blair Wheadon played all 40 minutes and led five WOU student-athletes with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Travis Kuhns collected 11 points as he went 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Matt Schmidt came off the bench to score 11 points and grab a team-best seven rebounds. Sam Kelly and Stanley Ratcliff both notched 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers for the Wolves.
As a team, Western Oregon was unable to overcome a 32.8 field goal percentage as it sank just 21 of its 64 attempts. The Wolves' defense was strong holding the Waves to 40 percent from the floor (28-70) and 33 percent from the three-point line (8-24). WOU was also able to get to the free throw line 25 times and make 20 of its shots from the charity stripe. Western Oregon committed a season-low in turnovers as it had just 11 turnovers in the contest. However, the Wolves also forced a season-low nine turnovers in the game.
WOU jumped to a early 14-7 lead in the game and trailed just 41-35 at the half. with 9:00 remaining in the secind half the Wolves went on an 11-0 run to close the Waves' lead to 66-63 with 3:55 remaining. Pepperdine would then get nine points from Mychel Thompson in the final minutes to put the game away.
The Western Oregon men's basketball team will now travel to Provo, Utah, to face BYU Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 7:00 p.m. (MT). This game was originally scheduled to be played Dec. 23, but weather conditions forced its postponement.
