Pepperdine Loses Another Big One to DePaul, 70-57

Pepperdine and Dwayne Polee can’t win the big ones? Don’t bite your tongue.

DePaul again showed up the Waves, defeating them, 70-57, before 9,597 fans at the Rosemont Horizon Thursday night. It was the Blue Demons’ fourth win without a loss in the series and dropped Pepperdine’s record this season to 12-3. DePaul improved to 9-3.

Polee, who has had poor games in a rout by Kentucky and in losses last season to DePaul and Duke, was made to look bad in this one by Rod Strickland, a freshman point guard from the Bronx.

Polee was held to eight points on 3-for-16 shooting, committed 7 turnovers--several caused by Strickland--and had only 1 assist.

Strickland, who has replaced the graduated Kenny Patterson, scored a game-high 18 points to go with 9 assists and 5 steals.

A couple of times, Strickland took the ball out of Polee’s hands as Polee went up for jump shots in the key, leading to fast breaks and DePaul baskets.

But Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said it was not Strickland who beat the Waves, and anyway, his team should be able to play well even when Polee isn’t.

The Waves outrebounded the Blue Demons, 45-41, with Pepperdine’s Anthony Frederick getting a game-high 13 to go with his 13 points. Grant Gondrezick led Pepperdine in scoring with 17 points.

But DePaul, behind 6-10 Lemone Lampley, 6-9 Dallas Comegys and 6-8, 250-pound Marty Embry, consistently swept the defensive boards and got opportunities for second and third shots.

The Blue Demons didn’t shoot well--41.3% from the floor and 64.3% from the line--but they didn’t really have to.

Harrick said the Blue Demons have “a major college front line--and reserves--with not only size but ability, great ability.”

He said the Blue Demons defeated the Waves with “defensive rebounds and the turnovers they created. I’m not going to say we came in here and played poorly--they made us play poorly.”

The Waves trailed, 7-6, when DePaul went on a 25-8 spurt and then built a 43-26 lead by halftime. In the second half, the closest the Waves could get was within 13 points. They did it twice, the last time at 70-57 with 13 seconds left.

DePaul Coach Joey Meyer essentially agreed with Harrick on what defeated the Waves.

Meyer said a full-court press by the Blue Demons had hurt the Waves in last season’s 90-65 loss to DePaul at Rosemont and he decided it would work again this year.

It did, and Meyer said the press “caused an awful lot of turnovers (Pepperdine had 23).”

He said he used that defense because he “really wanted to get our guys going (to get them over) the old Notre Dame syndrome.” DePaul plays arch-rival Notre Dame Saturday in a nationally televised game.

Asked if he was surprised by Strickland’s outstanding game, Meyer said: “I said coming in that he could be the best point guard ever to come to DePaul.”

He said that Strickland had a couple of lapses in the game but was “really good offensively and controlled the tempo.”

Harrick, asked if he knew why Polee played poorly, answered:

“There is a lot of pressure on Dwayne to perform--certainly not from me. I think Dwayne does put a lot of pressure on himself.”