SAN FRANCISCO – In stark contrast to the scene last month in Malibu, the San Francisco women's basketball team couldn't get it going as Pepperdine stole the 76-65 victory from the Dons Saturday afternoon on Senior Day.

The trio playing in their last regular season game on the Hilltop did everything they could to change the outcome, with Aundrea Gordon posting a new career-best 21 points as she averaged 20.5 points per game on the week. To go along with a 14-point outing, Taj Winston hit a new season-best rebounding mark with 13 boards against the Waves, and Paige Spietz added a game-high three blocks for USF, along with nine points and seven rebounds.

"I could not be more proud of our seniors," head coach Jennifer Azzi said earlier this week. "To come here, to build a program – they've really helped us build a really solid foundation and they got a lot of experience when they were younger in the program so now we've been able to build with their leadership, their strength, their hard work, their effort and now they have become excellent leaders for our underclassmen."

Pepperdine opened with the first points in the contest and the Waves showed they were ready to battle for the full 40 minutes. The game stayed close through the opening quarter of action after Taylor Proctor's putback knotted the score at 14 apiece. From that point, Bria Richardson and Ea Shoushtari helped the Waves to a 10-2 run to widen the lead.

The Dons would scrap back with a 7-2 spurt of their own to close the period after Gordon's pass to Michaela Rakova under the basket resulted in the points. At the break, USF only trailed 30-27 despite shooting 32 percent in the period, including a 1-for-8 effort from 3-point range.

The Waves again stretched their lead in the opening minutes of the second half and found themselves ahead 42-32 after a jumper from Kim Jacobs. The 10-point lead grew to 13 after Stanback hit the front end of her one-and-one with 6:00 to play, but the Dons found a last-second spark to challenge the outcome.

Proctor found Spietz for the uncontested jumper, and then Proctor hit four in a row from the line. After free throws for Keitra Wallace, Winston grabbed the offensive rebound for the putback. On the next offensive possession for the Dons, Winston dished to Gordon for the layup and the Dons had the score at 59-52 with 3:06 to play.

After a successful and-one try for Winston with 40.9 seconds remaining, the Dons pulled within six. But Pepperdine's shooters didn't miss from the line down the stretch to close the game out 76-65 and halt USF's bid for the regular-season sweep.

Both teams managed 37 percent shooting in the contest and the Dons won the battle of the boards 42 to 35. Glaringly, the Dons committed 21 turnovers in the game which led to 25 points for Pepperdine.

With the loss, USF stands at 15-12 (6-10 WCC) on the season leading into the final week of play. Fortunately for the Dons, who are still grappling for seeding and position in the WCC Championships, USF's closes competitor, Santa Clara, also fell on Saturday afternoon keeping them Broncos one game back in the standings. As it stands now, the Dons would earn the No. 6 seed and face the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals.

The Dons close out the regular season on the road against a pair of Bay Area opponents. First, USF travels the Bay Bridge to Moraga to meet up with Saint Mary's on Thursday at 6 p.m.