Pepperdine Swamps St. Mary’s, 105-64

The roof at Firestone Fieldhouse sprang a leak Friday night. But it was plugged in time for Pepperdine and St. Mary’s to play basketball.

It was an unlucky break for St. Mary’s as the Waves came out and mopped up on the inexperienced Gaels.

With Grant Gondrezick scoring a career-high 26 points and Eric White 20, Pepperdine routed St. Mary’s, 105-64.

Pepperdine, 6-1 in the West Coast Athletic Conference and 18-4 overall, stayed a game behind unbeaten and conference-leading Loyola Marymount. St. Mary’s dropped to 2-5 and 9-11.

The Waves shot 77.4% (24 for 31) in the first half, led by as many as 23 points and were ahead at intermission, 51-34.

Sixth man Gondrezick was 10 for 10 from the free-throw line and scored 20 of his 26 in the second half. Teammate Jon Korfas was 6 for 6 from the floor (mostly from the outside) and had 8 assists and 3 steals.

Polee, who played just 23 minutes, finished with 10 points and 3 assists.

Levy Middlebrooks grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds and added 9 points for Pepperdine, which outrebounded St. Mary’s, 39-23.

Anthony Frederick scored 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting. Frederick also held freshman Robert Haugen, the nation’s leader in field-goal percentage at 68.2%, to eight points.

Gondrezick said he got his points because “the other guys were passing the ball in the right spots.”

When he was told he had scored 26, he said that St. Mary’s “was down by a lot in the second half and not playing as hard.

“Or we learned our lesson last week at San Diego, and we’re going to play hard the rest of the way.”

San Diego visits Firestone Fieldhouse tonight.