By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Good thing Billy Knight showed up on Wednesday against
Pepperdine. Without him the Bruins would have been in even worse
shape.
Knight finished with 21 points ““ 13 in the first half
““ and he went 3 for 5 overall from the three-point line.
Knight jump-started his team by scoring 10 of the Bruins’
first 19 points, including the team’s first six.
“I was mad that Billy Knight kept getting the ball,”
Pepperdine head coach Paul Westphal said. “I told our guys
not to let him shoot from that corner, but they didn’t listen
to me.”
It was only fitting that Knight had a big game against
Pepperdine. Two years ago, Knight made his decision to transfer
from UCLA after the Bruins defeated Pepperdine.
Knight saw just two minutes in that game and put up zero points
for his team.
But this time around, Knight was a player-of-all-traits, going
to work from the perimeter and slashing to the basket.
In fact, Knight was the only Bruin who seemed to be able to
penetrate the Pepperdine defense, often drawing the foul under the
basket.
And he was nearly perfect from the free-throw line going
8-for-10 on the night.
The 6-foot-6 guard was quieter in the second half, but Knight
opened the second half for the Bruins with a three-pointer followed
by an easy lay-up to put the Bruins up 41-38 just over two minutes
into the half.
But the Bruins didn’t take advantage of Knight’s
early surge, and Knight spent almost five minutes of the second
half on the bench.
“He played well tonight,” Cedric Bozeman said.
“He got a lot of open looks, but as a whole we went down as a
team.”
According to Knight, Lavin was looking for a lineup that
worked.
Let’s get this straight. Lavin benched Knight, who had put
20 points on the board and was the only guy besides Kapono in a
white uniform scoring.
But even after a strong start, things didn’t click for
Knight and the Bruins when it really counted.
Knight found himself at the free-throw line with 27 seconds left
in the game with the Bruins were down 80-78. With the opportunity
to tie the game, he missed the first one.
And then with with 13 seconds left in the game, the Bruins were
down 81-78 and Knight committed his first foul of the night,
sending Pepperdine forward Boomer Brazzle to the line. Brazzle sunk
both of his free-throws, putting the game just out of reach,
83-78.
“I just wanted to bring energy, and I guess my energy was
offense. We needed defense,” Knight said. “I came out
scoring a lot, but I didn’t stop my man.”