Box Score

Malibu, Calif. - Despite missing its top two scorers, Fresno Pacific led for much of the night against NCAA Division I Pepperdine before a Lorne Jackson layup with three seconds left allowed the Waves to escape with a 60-59 win.

Matt Samuels had given the Sunbirds a 59-58 lead with eight seconds left before Jackson drove the length of the court for the game-winner. A Zach Kaul three-pointer missed at the buzzer for FPU.

The game counted as a regular season game for the Waves (8-5) and as an exhibition for the Sunbirds (6-5).

FPU's John Taylor and Malcolm Griffin missed the game due to canceled flights out of Chicago (weather) coming back from the Christmas break, and with a couple others out due to injury the Sunbirds were only able to dress out eight players.

The Sunbirds made up for the lack of personnel however with a stingy defense, a commitment to controlling the pace of the game and an all-out effort on both ends of the floor as players dove for loose balls and chased after every rebound.

"Our guys did a great job of executing the gameplan," said head coach Chris Wright. "We did a good job of making Pepperdine guard deep into the shotclock and we executed a lot of our sets. All eight of our guys made big contributions tonight. Matt ran our team really well. Trevin was the best offensive player on the floor. Anthony is turning into arguably the best defender in our league. Rickey had probably his best game of the year. Zach played really really well. Tone [Credit] battled inside. . I was really proud of their effort."

FPU led 57-53 with 56 seconds left, but a three by Jackson with 17 seconds left helped the Waves close the gap in the final minute. It was the second straight game the Sunbirds had surrendered a lead in the final minute.

"It was a good job and we were good against Grand Canyon as well," said Wright. "We tell our guys good is the enemy of great. Right now we're a good team, but we have a chance to be great. I'm not going to pat these guys on the back just because it was a Division I team. We don't play to be good, we play to be great. The fact that we blew a four-point lead in the closing minutes on the road again is inexcusable. We have to get over this hump."

Trevon Clayton had 15 points and eight rebounds to lead FPU. Samuels added 13, Rickey Vick had 11 and Anthony Brant finished with eight. Antonio Credit led the team with four assists.

Pepperdine jumped out to a 9-2 lead, but that would be the largest lead of the night for the Waves as FPU led for most of the first half and much of the second as well.

FPU got valuable minutes off the bench from Kaul, as well as Tyler Goslinga and Christian Fuentes. Goslinga's layup as time expired in the first half gave FPU a 28-27 lead heading into the break.

Stacy Davis had 18 points to lead Pepperdine, while Jackson added 16. With the one-point victory, the Waves narrowly avoided becoming the third Division I team in the last five years to fall to the Sunbirds (USC, San Francisco).

FPU had one of its top free-throw shooting performances of the year, hitting 83% (19-of-23) on the night.

The Sunbirds return to PacWest play on January 2nd, when they host Point Loma at 4:30 pm.