WCAC Tournament Evening Games : Pepperdine Beats Gonzaga; Santa Clara Wins

Pepperdine’s basketball team, snapping a four-game losing streak, defeated Gonzaga, 81-70, Saturday night in a first-round game of the West Coast Athletic Conference tournament.

Pepperdine’s Levy Middlebrooks scored a team-high 22 points, and teammate Tom Lewis had 17 points as the fourth-seeded Waves (17-11) also snapped the fifth-seeded Bulldogs’ five-game winning streak.

The Waves will meet top-seeded Loyola Marymount tonight at 7 in a semifinal game. In the regular season, the Lions started Pepperdine’s losing streak by winning two straight from the Waves.

Gonzaga’s Danny Roe scored 15 points in the first half, including two baskets on goal-tending calls on Casey Crawford. Roe scored 22 points before fouling out with 4:13 left in the game.

But the Waves, led by 10 first-half points from Middlebrooks, led at intermission, 34-30.

Pepperdine increased its lead to 45-34 on a dunk by Crawford with 16 minutes left to play.

But Gonzaga’s Doug Spradley, scored 15 points in the second half, and his two free throws on a technical called on the Pepperdine bench closed the gap to 51-50 with 11:06 left.

But in the next six minutes, the Waves outscored the Bulldogs, 15-5, to put the game away.

Gonzaga is 16-12.

Santa Clara 90, San Francisco 88--The third-seeded Broncos held off a second-half rally by the sixth-seeded Dons and improved to 19-9 overall. Santa Clara will face second-seeded St. Mary’s (19-8) at 5 p.m. today.

The Broncos, who led at halftime, 42-36, and shot 64.7% from the field, never trailed until Patrick Clardy grabbed a rebound and hit a 12-foot bank shot to give USF a 75-74 lead with 6:51 left to play.

But in the next five minutes, there were 8 lead changes and 3 ties. With the game tied, 86-86, Santa Clara’s Dan Weiss was fouled while shooting by Mark McCathrion with 55 seconds remaining.

McCathrion fouled out on the play, and Weiss made both free throws. And with 13 seconds left, Santa Clara’s Mitch Burley hit both ends of a one-and-one to give the Broncos a 90-86 lead.

The Dons played the last 30 minutes without all-conference guard Keith Jackson, who crashed to the floor while attempting a shot, injured his right knee and was carried from the floor. Jackson, with his leg in a brace, was on the bench for the second half.

Santa Clara’s Mitch Burley scored a game-high 23 points, including five three-point shots, and teammate Jens Gordon had scored 14 of his 15 points in the first half.

McCathrion led the Dons with 20 points, and teammates Rodney Tention and Joel DeBortoli each scored 15.