MALIBU, Calif. – The San Diego women's basketball program (9-8, 3-3 WCC) never trailed on Thursday night, securing a key, 58-51, victory on the road at Pepperdine (6-11, 1-6 WCC) at the Firestone Fieldhouse.
 
Kiera Oakry would lead all Torero scorers once again, tallying 15 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists, with 14 points coming in the opening half.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Ayanna Khalfani and Oakry set the tone for a successful road win, opening the game with a slick connection for the first bucket and setting up a strong night on both ends of the floor.
• A 9-2 run late in the first quarter helped create the distance necessary for the Toreros, as Oakry continued to establish herself early.
• The redshirt senior tallied nine points in the opening quarter and propelled the Toreros to 54.5 percent shooting the frame.
• The second quarter featured the longest run of the day for San Diego, as the team went on an 11-0 run to pull ahead 30-17 with under four minutes left in the opening half.
• Oakry continued to be a catalyst, with five of those points, while the defense forced five turnovers in the run alone.
• A pair of jumpers from Jess Finney and Kasey Neubert polished off a 34-24 advantage at halftime.
• The Torero lead would balloon to as high as 16 points in the third quarter off a Laura Erikstrup bucket, but Pepperdine would not back down, slowly chipping away at the lead over the next 10 minutes.
• A 7-0 run by Pepperdine midway through the fourth quarter helped cut the San Diego lead to just eight points.
• From there, the Toreros called on the ever-reliable Myah Pace to hang on for the win, as the graduate student played the role of primary ball handler and scored four points in the final three minutes to seal a 58-51 win.

 
TORERO TIDBITS

• The Toreros took home their first road WCC win of the season on Thursday night.
• The Toreros earned their third wire-to-wire win of the season, joining the Biola and CSUN wins.
• With two assists today, Pace (327) moved into a tie for eighth on the Toreros all-time charts, passing Angie Straub (326) and matching Amy Kame (327).
• The Toreros improve to 7-0 on the season when holding their opponent under 30 percent three-point shooting, after limiting the Waves to just 18.2 percent.

 
UP NEXT
The Toreros will conclude their three-game road trip with a short drive to Los Angeles, Calif., to face Loyola Marymount on Saturday at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed via the WCC Network.