Pepperdine Rally Falls Short as St. Mary’s Wins

A late second-half comeback by Pepperdine fell short Saturday night, and St. Mary’s escaped with a 64-61 victory before 3,050 fans at McKeon Pavilion.

With 13 seconds left and the Gaels trailing, 61-60, Pepperdine’s Tom Lewis picked up his fifth personal foul when he was called for blocking Erick Newman on a drive to the basket.

Newman then make both ends of a one-and-one, and Al Lewis, who finished with a team-high 18 points, hit two more free throws 10 seconds later, and it was all over for the Waves. Newman had 14 points for the game.

St. Mary’s, 18-8 overall and 9-5 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, finished in a tie for second place with Santa Clara (18-9, 9-5).

But more important, the Gaels enter next week’s WCAC tournament seeded second because they had beaten Gonzaga twice, while Santa Clara had split two games with the Bulldogs.

Pepperdine, dropping its fourth straight, fell to 16-11 and 8-6, and into fourth place in the conference. The Waves are fourth-seeded in the conference tournament and will open against fifth-place Gonzaga (16-11, 7-7).

But if the Waves get past the Bulldogs, they will probably wind up facing regular-season champion Loyola Marymount (24-3, 14-0) in the conference semifinals. The Lions defeated Pepperdine twice two weeks ago.

It’s a position that Pepperdine didn’t want to be in for the tournament. Against St. Mary’s Saturday night, however, the Waves were heading in that direction for most of the game.

Pepperdine was forced to play the Gaels’ game of controlled basketball from the beginning until about the last five minutes.

Against the tough zone defense of St. Mary’s, the Waves had trouble getting open and more trouble finding the basket when they did get open. The only other lead that Pepperdine held during the game was at 3-2.

The rest of the first half, St. Mary’s led by as many as 11 points and had a 36-25 advantage at intermission.

Lewis, who scored a game-high 20 points, and Levy Middlebrooks, who finished with 17, were almost all of the Waves’ offense in the first half. Lewis scored 11 first-half points, including three baskets from three-point range, and Middlebrooks had 8 of his 17 in the first 20 minutes.

But the Waves shot only 40.9% in the first half (9-of 22), while St. Mary’s was making 14 of 25 shots (56%).

Pepperdine’s Dexter Howard, who scored just one free throw in the first half, began getting loose along the base line in the second half, when he scored 12 more points, including a couple of dunks.

With 2:02 remaining, Lewis hit his fifth three-pointer to cut the Gaels’ lead to 58-54. And Middlebrooks hit both ends of a one-and-one to make it 60-59 for St. Mary’s.

Howard blocked a shot by Robert Haugen, and after timeouts were called by each team, Middlebrooks sank a hook shot in the lane to give the Waves the edge, 61-60.

Then came the crucial blocking foul on Lewis, a foul which Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said shouldn’t have been called.

Harrick said that Lewis “took a great charge. The other guy took off at the top of the key, traveled, and we don’t get a call.

“But losers cry about officiating; winners get second place.” Harrick said that if his players had been patient enough to take good shots in the first half, they wouldn’t have put themselves in such a tight position.