Kendyl Carson
Juneau’s Kendyl Carson did most of the heavy lifting in leading the Pepperdine women’s basketball team back from an eight-point deficit in the third quarter.
The Waves lost 74-64 to Santa Clara, but Carson won the moment with her prime performance.
With her team trailing 38-30 coming out of halftime, she went into takeover mode and scored or assisted on 15 points in the third quarter to power Pepperdine’s 23-14 run that gave the Waves the lead going into the fourth quarter.
Carson, of Juneau-Douglas High fame, finished with a season-high 13 points to go with seven assists in her best game of the season in the West Coast Conference.
The 6-foot sophomore forward also flashed a fabulous 7-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and logged a season-high 37 minutes.
Carson got cooking early in the third quarter when she orchestrated a 9-2 run in the first two minutes by hitting a jumper, assisting on a 3-pointer and then assisting on a layup. And just like that, the deficit was cut to 42-39.
Carson closed the quarter with six points and another assist. She went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line across the final 1:13, with her final foul shot giving putting Pepperdine ahead 53-52 with 31 seconds left in the quarter.
She is averaging 6.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists in nine games. Her assist average ranks No. 3 in the WCC.
Carson has had five or more assists four times, highlighted by her career-high nine dimes at UCLA.