One of the words Bria Richardson uses to describe her game on the hardwood is “relentless.”
Despite undergoing approximately six months of rehab due to an injury to her left ankle, the five-foot-eight guard’s on-court state of mind hasn’t changed one bit, and it’s one of the reasons the Pepperdine Waves women’s basketball team is off to its best start since the 2011-12 season.
The Waves are taking a 6-8 record into their Jan. 8 home contest versus a West Coast Conference opponent, the San Diego Toreros (12-2). A good portion of the Waves’ success is thanks to Richardson, who is pumping in 14.4 points and dishing 3.5 assists per game. The senior from Hawthorne also has a team-leading 35 steals.
Richardson trained extremely hard to get back on the court.
“Coming back from my injury hasn’t startled me at all,” she said. “It actually gave me time to get stronger and focus on other things like improving my mental health and my physical health.”
Richardson’s injury was no easy setback. Last season, during the Waves’ game against Saint Mary’s College, Richardson elevated for a jump shot. On her descent down she landed normally, but immediately felt a “gushing of pain.” She knew then that the injury woes that plagued her throughout previous seasons struck again. The diagnosis was a lateral ligament tear.
Richardson said mental toughness helped her power through her recovery after having surgery.
“I love the game,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to stop. Nothing is going to hold me back from continuing to finish out my senior year.”
Second-year Pepperdine coach Ryan Weisenberg said the injury made Richardson work harder to take care of her body by eating better and improving her strength and conditioning.
“She has actually come back stronger and a lot quicker,” he said. “She came back hungrier, and she definitely came back a better leader because of it. She got a chance to see from the sidelines and see what the coaches were looking at. She has been our most consistent player all season long.”
While she recovered and missed the final 14 games, Pepperdine finished last year with a 6-25 record.
As soon as Richardson hit the court this season, she was back in the groove. She hung 29 points on Cal Poly in a November win. Along with Richardson, other scorers for the Waves are junior guard Kietra Wallace, who is averaging 12.8 points a game, guard and 2013-14 WCC Freshman of the Year Allie Green, who is averaging 12.4 points a game, and senior guard Ea Shoushtari, who is averaging 8.2 points a contest.
Through 14 games during the 2013-14 campaign, Pepperdine had a 5-9 record before losing 15 straight games. Richardson believes the group is a better team off the court this year.
“Bonding, hanging out more with each other in the dorms, going to the movies more, going out to eat after practice,” she said. “We are just constantly together as a team.”
Weisenberg said the play of the underclassmen seeing significant court action has been a key to the 11-member Waves’ success.
“They are picking up the system quicker than expected,” he said. “They are great student-athletes. You can tell them something one time and they are trying to do it. They are not just going to go back to what is comfortable for them. That has been the biggest key for us.”
Richardson said she knew the Waves would be a better team this year based off their 79-68 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills, a Division- II school, in a Nov. 8 exhibition game. She said in past seasons smaller schools had challenged the Division-I Waves.
“It was a great confidence booster to pound on a team we should have been pounding on,” she said. “Just seeing the passion and fire in people’s eyes after winning a game was good.”
Pepperdine is currently 1-2 in the WCC. The Waves opened conference play with a 98-91 win over Loyola Marymount on Dec. 29 but then dropped their next two contests against Saint Mary’s and Pacific.
Richardson wants the squad to turn around their fortunes quickly.
“You always need that positive momentum going into games,” she said. “On the court we need to communicate, we need to play together as a team. And we also need to focus on the key things those other teams do to win.”
Their conference slate includes games against Gonzaga, BYU, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Portland.
Weisenberg said there are three things the Waves need to do in order to be successful in the WCC: rebound better, hunker down on defense and score. “We have got some incredible shooters on the team, we are trying to get them into the mode that if they miss their first two shots they don’t drop their shoulders and think that the game is over,” he said.
“We want to be above .500,” Richardson said. “At the end of the day we just all want to come together and be a great team. Whether that leads to success or not, we just all want to love each other as a family.”
