Pepperdine Beats the Clock and Northwestern

Tezale Archie made a three-pointer at the buzzer and Pepperdine, which blew a 19-point lead in the second half, pulled out a 57-56 victory over Northwestern on Saturday night at Evanston, Ill.

Archie’s game-winning basket was his first field goal of the game on his sixth shot. Kelvin Gibbs led the Waves (10-5) with 15 points and eight rebounds.

“Obviously, we’re happy with the victory,” said Coach Jan van Breda Kolff. “I’ve been coaching for a while now and I had a few close games with Arkansas. You want to win every game but sometimes we would beat them and I would feel for Nolan Richardson because I have a lot of respect for him and the way his teams play.

“I feel that way now for Kevin O’Neill (Northwestern coach) because his teams are always prepared, they play hard, they’re disciplined.

“We’ve won most of our close games. We’ve been very good in those situations and we’ve had some players who have stepped up.”

Nick Sheppard added 12 points seven rebounds, and Tommie Prince had 11 for Pepperdine.

Ben Johnson scored 19 points for Northwestern (4-9), making all 11 of his free throws.