Pepperdine Falls With No Excuses

Playing without two of its best players, Pepperdine tried to ride the broad shoulders of forward Bryan Hill and guard Gerald Brown to victory Saturday night.

Hill and Brown did their parts, combining for 42 points, but the outmanned Waves wilted in the final minutes as Boise State won on the road for the first time this season, 61-58, in a nonconference game before 2,873 at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Pepperdine (7-5) had only seven scholarship players available because guard Marques Johnson, the team’s best outside shooter and second-leading scorer, was in Alabama to attend his grandmother’s funeral, and forward Wil Weir, a key reserve, was sidelined because of asthma.

Coach Tony Fuller, though, was in no mood for alibis after the Waves were outscored, 10-5, in the final 1:46. Pepperdine opens West Coast Conference play Thursday night at San Diego.

“We don’t make any excuses,” Fuller said. “[Boise State] played well. There were a couple of rebounds that we should have gotten down the stretch that we didn’t get. That was the key.”

Boise State (4-8) made six free throws in the final 19 seconds, two by forward Phil Rodman with three seconds left to account for the final score. Pepperdine guard Tezale Archie got off a running three-point attempt at the buzzer that bounced off the rim.

Junior guard Joe Wyatt, a former standout at Granada Hills Kennedy High, scored six of the Broncos’ last 10 points, finishing with a team-high 15. His two free throws with 13 seconds left gave Boise State a 59-56 lead.

“We hit some clutch free throws and shots down the stretch, that’s something we haven’t done,” said Wyatt, whose team entered Saturday’s game 0-5 in road games. “Our coach [Rod Jensen] told us to just stick with our game and calm down a bit.”

Hill led the Waves with 22 points and Brown added 20.

“A rebound here or there and we would have had the game,” Brown said. “It didn’t go our way.”