Pepperdine Scores 82-65 Win Over Northern Arizona

Pepperdine overcame some early jitters and scored an 82-65 victory over Northern Arizona University before a Firestone Fieldhouse crowd of 1,511 in Malibu Thursday night.

Dwayne Polee scored a career-high 23 points, while Anthony Frederick added 20 points for the Waves. The win improved Pepperdine’s record to 8-6. Northern Arizona dropped to 8-4.

The Waves dropped behind at the outset and trailed by as many as five points in the first half. But, with 2:41 remaining in the half and the score tied, 33-33, Pepperdine went ahead on two Eric White foul shots, an 18-foot jumper by Jon Korfas and two more free throws by Polee.

That gave the Waves a 39-33 lead, and they maintained a six-point lead at the half, 43-37.

The Lumberjacks trimmed the advantage to 53-52 when David Allen hit one of two free throws with 11:32 left in the game. Allen later made two free throws to tie the game at 56-56.

But the Waves then got hot and outscored NAU, 26-9, to turn it into a rout.

Late in the game, Frederick, who had missed a dunk and two layups earlier, hit a dunk, followed later by a reverse dunk and another dunk on an assist from Korfas.

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said afterward that junior guard Polee, who hit 7 of 11 shots from the field and was 9-of-9 from the foul line, had played his best game in two years at the school.

But, Harrick added, “We’re a streaky team; we had a bad streak in the first half and another one at the start of the second half.”