The waves met the beach ? Doesn't that happen frequently in Malibu ?

Pepperdine is more likely to be tired going in. They had to travel.

Aggies open up the game on a 10-0 run

Pepperdine came back strong in the 2nd half of the 1st quarter. Aggies up 15-12.

That was a sloppy first quarter for the Aggies. They turned the ball over and got out hustled on the boards.

Absolutely. We let them have WAY too many 2nd and 3rd opportunities.

End of the half Aggies up 28-23. Some ugly basketball from both teams.

Am I reading that score right? Did they score 50 in a quarter???

No... score right now is 51-42 Aggies end of the 3rd

Oh whew Google really screwed up there I guess

Oh wow, no that's not correct lol.

Aggies win 69-64!

Exciting team to follow!

This was a hard fought win over a very athletic Pepperdine team. The Ags started off hitting their first 4 shots and led 10-0 only a minute and a half into the game. They quickly cooled off though and and got out hustled on the defensive boards and the Waves came back to within one. The Ags built the lead up as many as 11 points in the 2nd half but couldn't shake the scrappy Waves.

Pepperdine was crashing the boards and getting a lot of offensive rebounds and 2nd chance points. They out rebounded the Aggies 45-37 overall and had 18 offensive boards that led to 18 2nd chance points. The Waves also played hard-nosed defense and the Ags were not getting a lot of open looks from 3. The Ags hit only 5 of 16 for the game after going 17 of 32 against Washington State.

Jen Gross saw that the Ags needed some more quickness and length on the floor to slow down the offensive rebounding of the Waves so she brought in Nina Bessolo and Cierra Hall and they contributed a combined 13 points and 9 rebounds in 13 minutes of PT each.

The star of the game though was Morgan Bertsch. Pepperdine was taking away the shots behind the arc so the Ags went inside to Bertsch and she responded with a monster game. She scored 27 points on 13 of 18 from the floor and 1-3 from the line. Her lightening quick spin moves in the paint are practically impossible to stop. She became only the 4th Aggie junior to reach 1,000 career points joining Carol Rische, Sydnee Fipps, and Ellen Porshneva.

Rachel Nagel had another stellar game also. She contributed 14 points on 5-8 shooting overall and 3 of 4 from the line.

If this team has a Achilles heel it may be rebounding especially on the defensive boards. Pepperdine was just getting too many offensive boards and 50/50 balls being batted around in the paint. To the Aggies credit though, they adjusted to not getting many open 3 point looks, went inside and outscored the Waves 40-28 in the paint. Good teams adjust and find ways to win and the Ags did that today. Great coaching and effort by the Aggies!

Thanks for the recap!

Indeed! (Y)

I know it's been pointed out in other threads, but I really like that the department's putting the players' majors in their recaps.

I think you meant "majors," Russ...and it is a great idea!

Whoops, yep. Stupid phones. :D

Yep, hard to find a negative on this game. The waves are a very good basketball team. Very athletic and we will see a lot more of this in the BW. Rebounding is an issue, yes. Also hard when you are a good 3 shooting team and far outside the paint. And Some say it cannot be coached. But the Aggies have the talent to deal with this. Call in Nina and Cierra and they did the job. Wow. A soph and a freshman save the day! Congrats to Morgan Bertch!!! She a real star.

I expect that the Ags will get pressured a lot this year because no opponent will want to let the shooters get into any sort of rhythm. Like 69Aaggie said though, it does seem like the athleticism is there to grind out wins.