The Pepperdine men’s basketball team ushered in a new era last Saturday night at Firestone Fieldhouse as Marty Wilson made his head coaching debut. Wilson’s young Waves made sure it was a successful one as they beat Pomona-Pitzer 59-50 to open the regular season.
Wilson, who served the last three seasons as the top assistant to former head coach Tom Asbury, said the game wore on his nerves a little but ultimately ended in satisfying fashion.
“It was obviously stressful,” Wilson said. “It was a battle, but I thought our guys showed patience and poise. We didn’t get rattled and try to make the 10-point play. It allowed us to create some more energy defensively and get some easy baskets.”
Junior guard Caleb Willis scored a career-high 18 points and senior forward Taylor Darby added 14 points to lead the Waves. Center Corbin Moore grabbed 10 rebounds in 17 minutes of action as Pepperdine outrebounded Pomona-Pitzer, 42-29. A glaring difference in the game was at the charity stripe where the Waves made 17 of 21 free throws while the Sagehens attempted only one free throw and didn’t score.
Willis was the spark plug all game long. His timely three-point shooting helped the Waves escape the upset to Pomona-Pitzer, a Division III school from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“I did what my team needed for me to do,” said Willis, who connected on four of five three-pointers. “I knocked down open shots and got everyone involved. This is the beginning of a new era and we have both feet in. It meant a lot for us to win for Coach [Wilson].”
Joshua Lowery opened the 2011-12 campaign for the Waves by making the first basket of the season on a 12-foot jumper just 18 seconds into the contest. Both teams traded baskets during the next nine minutes until Dane Suttle Jr. connected on back-to-back three-pointers to give Pepperdine a 17-10 lead midway through the first half.
Pomona-Pitzer then went on a 15-2 run to take a surprising 25-19 advantage with 3:33 remaining. The Waves responded with a 7-0 run to end the half to take a 26-25 lead into the break. Willis capped off the surge with a three-pointer at the buzzer.
The Waves shot a poor 30.8% (8-26) from the field in the first half while the Sagehens converted 44% of their shooting with seven different players contributing.
Willis began the second half in similar fashion, knocking down another three-pointer from the top of the key to extend the Waves lead to 29-25. The game descended into a back-and-forth defensive slugfest as both offenses ground to a halt for long stretches. Pepperdine finally seized control of the game on a 9-0 run to go up 43-36 after Darby scored five consecutive points, including a three-point play the old fashioned way. Darby scored on a tough layup inside the paint and converted the free throw after a hard foul.
Willis’ fourth three-point field goal of the evening in front of the Pepperdine bench gave the Waves a 48-38 advantage with 3:12 left in the game. The lead increased 55-42 as Pepperdine put distance between themselves and the visitors.
A major reason was Willis. Last season, the junior went only 5-14 from three-point range for the entire year, but his four three-pointers were the difference in this game.
“Caleb was good on both ends of the floor,” Wilson said. “He played within himself and stuck to the game plan. He shot his threes in rhythm and played solid defensively.”
Pepperdine’s tough man-to-man defense held Pomona-Pitzer to only 10 of 30 shooting in the second half (33.3%) and 38.2% for the game, finally grounding the Sagehens as surely as their landlocked fowl mascot.
“We played mentally tough tonight and didn’t give in,” said Wilson, a 1989 graduate of Pepperdine. “We made the right plays at the right time.”
After working 21 years as an assistant coach at Pepperdine, San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and Utah, Wilson earned his first collegiate win as a head coach and is already moving on to the next game.
“This game is now behind us,” Wilson said. “We have to get tougher and more physical. We just have to play better. And we will.”
The Waves return home on Monday, November 21, at 7 p.m. vs. Central Michigan.