Waves’ Luck Finally Runs Out : College basketball: Santa Clara wins, 63-58, and hands Pepperdine its second WCC loss in 43 games.

Despite winning 11 of its last 12 games entering its matchup against Santa Clara, Pepperdine has had its share of close calls in West Coast Conference play this season.

The Waves managed to pull out an overtime victory over San Diego on Friday, but their luck ran out Saturday night in a 63-58 loss to Santa Clara before 2,439 at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Santa Clara overcame a seven-point halftime deficit to hand the Waves only their second conference defeat in their last 43 games.

The loss also narrowed Pepperdine’s lead in the conference to one game over San Francisco and Gonzaga. The Waves are 17-5 overall and 8-2 in the WCC. Santa Clara is 12-10 and 6-4.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said the game had a lot of similarities to his team’s conference loss to San Francisco two weeks ago--a game that ended the Waves’ 38-game conference winning streak.

“There’s got to be a pattern when you lose the second game on back-to-back weekends at home,” he said. “We were playing like we were in sand and we did play overtime last night, but that’s no excuse.”

The Waves took their last lead of the game at 49-47 on a bank shot by forward Dana Jones with 6:54 to play.

Santa Clara tied it, 49-49, on a jumper by forward DeWayne Lewis on its next possession and took the lead for good at 52-49 on a three-point basket by guard Steve Nash with 4:47 left.

Guard John Woolery then made two free throws for Santa Clara’s final points with eight seconds remaining.

“You’ve got to credit Santa Clara,” Asbury said. “They came in and flat out beat us. They’re only eight or 10 points away from being undefeated in this conference. They play everyone tough.”

The Waves had defeated Santa Clara by two points in double overtime last week in Santa Clara. Pepperdine had also defeated the Broncos eight times in a row in Malibu.

“It’s been a long time,” Coach Dick Davey said. “I don’t even know how long, but we haven’t won many against them.”

Santa Clara was led by forward Pete Eisenrich with 15 points. Pepperdine got 15 from Derek Noether and 14 from Steve Guild with 14.