RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In a hotly contested contest between rising Big West Conference program UC Riverside and a consistent West Coast Conference mid-major, Pepperdine, the Highlanders Men's Basketball team turned a page tonight in first-year head coach David Patrick's tenure, never yielding to the Waves and emerging as the victors with a 75-71 win in a game that saw 11 lead changes before the final buzzer sounded.
Bouyed by an energetic and enthusiastic crowd that would not be deterred by a rain-soaked, chilly December night in Southern California's Inland Empire, UCR went blow-for-blow with the boys from Malibu in a thrilling, nail biting Thursday night special in the SRC Arena.
Pepperdine jumped out to an early lead in the first half but found themselves unable to pull away from the resilient and determined Highlander squad. Each time the Waves attempted to extend what at most grew to a seven-point lead, UCR closed the gap time and time again. The Highlanders clamped down on defense, rebounded on both ends of the court and eventually tied the game in the final moments of the first half.
Although UCR trailed by two points heading into the half, the 35-33 lead Pepperdine held at the end of the first stanza quickly evaporated in the second half as a surging and relentless Highlander squad would not be denied. And, with just over 13 minutes to go in the second half, the Highlanders took the lead for the first time in the game on a strong put back from freshman Callum McRae, putting the team up 45-44. McRae, who stepped into his own tonight, then went on to score six straight for UCR.
Senior big Menno Dijkstra had a breakout night, grabbing six rebounds and scoring 16 of his 20 points in the second half, with seven points in just over 90 seconds which electrified the crowd in the SRC. Dijkstra mimicked the three point accuracy of teammate and point guard Dikymbe Martin (who nailed four three-pointers on the night) by drilling two of his own from well behind the arc.
Martin led all scorers as the junior dropped 22, on 7-of-11 shooting, for his fourth 20+ point game this season.
The battle in the second half continued before a thunderous and-one dunk by Ajani Kennedy sent the crowd over the edge, and the SRC erupted when the UCR sophomore went over the top of two Pepperdine defenders putting the Highlanders up 69-66 with 36 seconds remaining.
The Highlanders' hard and aggressive play was emblematic of the new culture the program is building as it moves through the first year of the David Patrick era in Riverside. Tough defensive play proved to be the order of the night for UCR along with great shooting from the field. In addition, clutch free throw shooting down the stretch sealed the win for the UCR, enabling the Highlanders to capture its first win over Pepperdine in seven contests between the two since December 1977.
Reflecting on his team's second half performance, Coach Patrick stated during the post-game press conference, "We played the young guys a little more. We got Ajani (Kennedy) and Zac (Watson) in the game quicker tonight, and I think Dominick (Pickett) was huge for us in the second half. We did some things differently defensively in the second half and kept them off tilt a little bit. We also took care of the ball in the second half after turning it over nine times in the first half, which is nine more attempts for them. If you take care of the ball and share the ball you get rewarded in the score column. So the effort to start the second half was a lot better than it has been."
Taking care of the ball and beating the opponent on the boards have been staples of Patrick's philosophy all year and his team did just that tonight turning it over just three times in the second half and out-rebounding the Waves 31-22.
With tonight's win, the Highlanders move to 3-7 on the season. UCR heads to El Paso, Texas next to take on UTEP on December 16.
