Cougar Tournament : Pepperdine Wins, 85-67; BYU Routs Long Beach

Pepperdine had a hard time shaking Western Illinois Friday night, but the Waves emerged with an 85-67 win before an estimated 8,900 fans in the opener of Brigham Young’s Cougar tournament.

Pepperdine, which raised its record to 5-1 with its fifth straight win, will play BYU, which beat Cal State Long Beach, 94-75, in the second game.

In a game that was tied 12 times, Pepperdine led, 66-60, with a little less than five minutes remaining.

But Western Illinois (4-4), which had outhustled Pepperdine for much of the game and trailed at the half, 34-30, started fouling and making mistakes, allowing the Waves to finally take command.

Grant Gondrezick, Pepperdine’s sixth man, was also the key man for his team. He scored a game-high 21 points and had 15 points and 5 rebounds in the second half.

Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick got Gondrezick into the game early in the first half when the Waves were struggling. Harrick pulled center Levy Middlebrooks for Gondrezick, who usually plays guard.

“It wasn’t Levy so much, as I needed Grant in the game,” the coach said.

Harrick, who used all 10 players on his traveling squad, said that Western Illinois (4-4) “played exceptionally well and (was) quick to the ball. I thought we were just a step slow, hesitating. We just never got into the flow.”

Daryl Reed, Western Illinois’ point guard, got into the flow early and late. He scored a team-high 19 points, handed out 6 assists and had 2 steals. Cedrick Wright scored 18 points and Bobby Jordan 16 for the Leathernecks.

Dwayne Polee scored 16 points and had a season-high 9 assists for the Waves, and Jon Korfas added 12 points and 7 assists.

Harrick said one reason that he played everyone was because of Provo’s altitude of about 4,200 feet.

“When you come up here you’ve got to rest your guys for the last seven minutes,” he said.

But his ploy didn’t begin working until the last five minutes. “You don’t play and you win by 18,” Harrick said. “It was ugly, but I’ll take it.”

In the second game, BYU ran its offense well the first two or three times down the floor. After that it became probably the earliest garbage time on record as the Cougars made their shots and the 49ers didn’t. In the first half, BYU hit 50% of its field-goal attempts (17 of 34) and 79% of its free throws (15 of 19).

Brent Stephenson led the Cougars with 13 points in the first half, hitting 4 of 4 shots and 5 of 5 from the line. And that’s what he finished with. Stephenson got in long enough in the second shot to miss one shot.

Jeff Chatman paced the Cougars (2-4) with 19 points, and Averian Parrish added 13.

DeAnthony Langston led Long Beach (also 2-4) with 16 points, while Morlon Wiley added 14 points and Reggie Wallace 13.