The WCAC : Pepperdine Clinches Title With a 57-54 Victory

Pepperdine’s Dwayne Polee made two last-minute steals and a driving layup Thursday night to lead the Waves to a 57-54 comeback win over the University of San Diego in front of 2,648 fans at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

The victory earned Pepperdine a West Coast Athletic Conference championship, Coach Jim Harrick’s fourth in the last five years, and a berth in the NCAA regionals.

The Waves are 10-1 in WCAC play and 22-8 overall. Their last conference game is at home against Loyola Marymount on Saturday night.

Second-place Santa Clara, the preseason favorite, is 6-3 with three conference games left. The Broncos are 17-8 overall. San Diego dropped to 5-6, 16-10.

Polee, who scored only two points in the first half on 1-for-5 shooting, saved his heroics for the last minute.

Pepperdine struggled throughout the game, shooting just 35.5% in the first half (45.5% for the game) against a 1-2-2 San Diego zone, plugged in the middle by 6-11 center Scott Thompson.

San Diego’s Chris Carr scored 10 of his team-high 12 points in the first half, and the Toreros led at intermission, 28-26.

Polee, who finished with 10 points and 10 assists, hit a jumper at the start of the second half to tie it at 28. Then Jon Korfas, who scored a game-high 14 points, hit a 12-footer from the baseline to put the Waves ahead, 30-28.

Pepperdine got out to its biggest leads (five points) at 43-38 and 45-40, but San Diego kept coming back and forging ahead by one-point margins. The Toreros led for the last time when Peter Murphy hit a 16-footer to make it 54-53 with 1:32 left.

But with 48 seconds left and San Diego in possession, Polee stole the ball from Murphy, stumbled, then drove more than half the length of the court for a layup, with Carr in pursuit.

The Toreros had the ball in the frontcourt and a chance to win with four seconds on the clock. But Polee batted the ball away from Carr and into the hands of Wave forward Eric White, who was fouled by Anthony Reuss.

White, who finished with 13 points, hit both ends of a one-and-one situation to make it 57-54. San Diego couldn’t get a shot off before the final buzzer.