Nwaba Enjoys Senior Day at Pepperdine

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Last Saturday afternoon, March 2, in Malibu was Senior Day for the Pepperdine women’s basketball team, and one of the players honored before the Waves’ regular season finale against Saint Mary’s was former Palisades Charter High School star Jane Nwaba.

The 5-10 senior forward earned West Coast Conference honorable mention honors while leading the Waves with 10.4 points., 7.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game, thus making her the only WCC player to accomplish that feat for her team.

During the regular season Nwaba led the squad in scoring 12 times, rebounding 22 times and assists 12 times, all that while taking on more of a primary ball-handling role late in the season.

In conference action the former Dolphin scored a career-high 22 points against San Francisco on February 1 and tied her career-high with 12 rebounds while scoring a go-ahead layup in a victory over San Diego.

Going into the WCC Championships, Nwaba has finished in double-figures in the last 10 games while recording double-doubles in three of the last five contests. Her nine double-doubles this season leads the team, plus she is one away from breaking into the program’s top-10 single-season double-double leaderboard.

Nwaba played in all 23 games as a freshman, averaging 3.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 14.6 minutes. As a sophomore she averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 23 games played with four starts.

Last winter she was Pepperdine’s fourth-leading scorer at 9.1 points per game and the team’s third-leading rebounder at 6.1 rebounds per game. She was third on the team in steals (26), scored in double digits 13 times and started all 29 games in which she played.  

Nwaba helped Palisades reach three City finals and win two section championships (one in Division I and one in the Open Division) in her four seasons on varsity playing while playing for three different head coaches. Nwaba earned City MVP honors in 2019 and 2020, and won the Palisadian-Post Cup Award as the school’s outstanding senior athlete in 2020.

Pepperdine (5-24) will try to snap its 15-game losing streak when it plays San Diego on Thursday, March 7, at 12 p.m. in the first round of the West Coast Conference Championships in Las Vegas.