Pepperdine’s Streak Hits 34 : College basketball: The Waves beat Gonzaga, 67-66. They have the longest active conference streak of any team in NCAA Division I.

It wasn’t easy, but Pepperdine managed to keep its conference winning streak alive.

Gonzaga forward Marc Armstead missed a short jumper in the lane with two seconds to play, and Pepperdine’s Dana Jones grabbed the rebound, as the Waves held on for a 67-66 victory in their West Coast Conference opener Friday night at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

The victory extended Pepperdine’s conference winning streak to a record 34 games. It is also the longest active streak of any team in NCAA Division I.

“I’ll be honest,” Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said. “If it would’ve come to an end tonight, (Gonzaga) would’ve earned it. I’ll just take 34 and holding.”

The Waves (10-3) led most of the game. Pepperdine opened a 28-18 advantage on a layup by reserve center Gavin Vanderputten with 6:20 to play in the first half and had a 36-30 lead at halftime.

But the Bulldogs (8-5) rallied behind center Jeff Brown, who scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half. All of those points came after Pepperdine center Derek Noether committed his fourth foul with 17:36 remaining.

“As soon as Noether got into foul trouble, Brown just went crazy on us,” Asbury said. “They just adjusted well to everything we threw at them.”

Gonzaga tied the game, 59-59, on a layup by forward Mike Stanford with 6:21 to play. Pepperdine went ahead to stay, 63-61, on its next possession after a layup by Jones and the Waves held on to win.

Asbury gave much of the credit to Jones, who scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and had a game-high 13 rebounds. Jones, the leading shooter in the conference, made 11 of 14 shots from the field.

Forward Byron Jenson had 12 points, guard Damin Lopez 11 and Noether 10 points and eight rebounds for the Waves.

“It was just a good game,” Asbury said. “I thought both teams played well. We didn’t play that bad. People assume we should win big because we’re the defending champs and we’re at home.”

In addition to Brown, Gonzaga was led by guard Felix McGowan with 15 points and Armstead with 12 points. But it was the two points at the end that probably concerned Armstead the most.

Said Jones: “I don’t know if it was an easy shot or not. There was a lot of traffic in the lane. But he just missed it and that’s that and we’ll take the win.”