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MALIBU, Calif. – After trailing by as many as nine in the first half, the Pepperdine men's basketball team put up 17 unanswered points in the second half en route to a 78-68 win over the University of South Alabama Monday night at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The victory—part of the Gotham Classic—gives the Waves a 6-2 record while the Jaguars fall to 2-5.

"I'm really proud of their effort," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "We're a team that's grown from last year because we have an ability to show some resolve. At Detroit we were down, against Middle Tennessee we got down early in the first half but came back and fought, and here we got down but came back and fought. The more we continue to do that, we'll be in a position where we'll be up four or five points and we'll go on a run and put a team away. It's a gradual process and one where we just need to stay the course, keep guys fighting and playing hard and we're going to get there."

Pepperdine outscored South Alabama 31-6 over an 11:23 stretch spanning halftime and shot 55.2 percent in the second half.

Stacy Davis led all players with 20 points—14 in the second half alone—and 10 rebounds, and dished out four assists with two blocks. Jett Raines and Shawn Olden joined Davis in double-digit points with 12 each.

For the Jaguars, senior Dionte Ferguson (Prattville, Ala.) scored a career-high 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting. He also grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots.

"I thought he did great job attacking the rim and being assertive with his post moves," Graves noted.

Sophomore Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) came off the bench to post 13 points on three 3-pointers, and freshman Taishaun Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind.), making his first career start, had 12 points, with eight coming at the free-throw line.

"I thought we attacked and did some good things early—we shared the ball and moved it around—but we missed a couple of layups that would have extended the lead," Graves stated. "Towards the end of the first half, we got a little stagnant and quit attacking when they switched to their zone. That's one thing, as a young team we need to recognize, when they go to a zone, that doesn't mean that we stop attacking.

"In the second half, the one thing that I was disappointed in was we let our inability to score baskets affect how hard we were going to play on the defensive end of the floor. We kept fighting and we finally got some energy going, got some stops and got out in transition and cut the lead to five, but we couldn't close it out. With a good team like this, you can't spot them 18 points in the second half."

The Waves shot 5-for-6 from the floor and went 4-for-4 at the free throw line over a 5:48 stretch to turn a one-point deficit into a 16-point advantage. Davis chipped in eight points for Pepperdine, who finished off the spurt with a layup from Davis at the 12:35 mark.

The Jags, meanwhile, missed all four attempts—including two from 3-point land—and committed three turnovers.

"The biggest thing was we were being too passive offensively," Graves said. "We weren't having any trouble breaking the initial pressure, but once we broke the pressure, we never made them pay for being out of position. We needed to drive the ball, attack the basket and get more paint touches, and either finish at the rim with a dump-off or kick out to an open shooter for 3. What we did was break the initial pressure, but we kept the ball out about 30 feet from the basket. We have to continue to be in attack mode, and as this team grows, they'll learn to understand that."

Pepperdine extended its lead to 18 less than two minutes later, but South Alabama answered with a 10-0 of its own and extended it to a 13-2 rally after a 3-pointer from Williams cut the margin to 60-53 with 7:24 left in the contest.

"We were attacking the basket; we weren't playing passively and we were doing things with authority," Graves said. "We were driving the ball hard and attacking the rim. Anytime you do things with authority, more times than not, good things are going to happen."

Six consecutive points got USA to within five, 69-64, with just under three minutes remaining, but the Waves responded with a couple of buckets and the Jags would get only as close as seven the rest of the way.

The Jaguars travel to Richmond Thursday for a 6 p.m. CST contest.

NOTES: South Alabama shot 50.0 percent (5-10) from 3-point land in the first half against the nation's leading 3-point defense (18.8%) entering the contest, but was held to just 12.5 percent (1-8) in the second… The Jaguars had their streak of games with a double-double snapped at four, but freshman Abdul Lewis (Newark, N.J.) grabbed 10 rebounds for his third double-digit rebound performance of the year and second in a row… The Jaguars used a different starting lineup for the first time this season, giving Lewis and Johnson their first starting assignments… The Waves now lead the all-time series with the Jaguars 3-2, with all three wins coming in Malibu… Johnson has scored in double-digits in the last six games, the longest active streak on the team; he's averaging a team-best 11.8 ppg over that span… USA is 1-16 on the road over the last two seasons… The two teams' rebounding totals were tied 39-39, marking the second game this season the Jaguars didn't win the battle of the boards… USA's 33 points before halftime are the second-highest total for the team this year… Both Williams and Barrington Stevens III (Allen, Texas) had four assists with no turnovers; Williams has seven turnovers and no assists in his last two games, and Stevens has posted a positive assist/turnover ratio in six of seven games this season… USA's 15/9 assist-turnover ratio as a team is a season best… Williams came off the bench for the first time in his career, ending his streak of 37 consecutive starts.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—