Pepperdine Finds Key and Routs USF, 71-53

Pepperdine, by shutting down University of San Francisco center Mark McCathrion, had no problem defeating the Dons, 71-53, Thursday night before 1,653 fans at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

While McCathrion, USF’s leading scorer and rebounder, had a game he would like to forget, Pepperdine center Casey Crawford may have had the game of his life.

Crawford, sometimes with help from teammates, did such a good job of denying the ball to McCathrion near the basket that he nearly shut out the Dons’ star in the first half.

McCathrion, who was averaging 15.6 points and 7.5 rebounds a game before running into the Waves, had just 3 points and 1 rebound in the half. He finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds.

Since none of McCathrion’s teammates picked up the slack for their leader, the Waves, outrebounding the Dons, 22-9, in the first half (39 to 27 for the night), moved out to easy leads of 10 and 11 points in the first half. Pepperdine led at halftime, 39-32.

The Waves scored the first 8 points of the second half, including 3 baskets by Crawford, one of them a dunk that shook the backboard.

Crawford finished with 16 points, 3 blocked shots and 12 rebounds-- 9 on the defensive boards. He made another dunk with 13:09 left in the game, giving Pepperdine its biggest lead, 58-36.

McCathrion’s shot in the lane pulled the Dons within 14 points at 58-44, but USF never got any closer.

Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said: “When Casey plays like that, we can play with anybody.”

Crawford said he thinks he got a lift because he was playing against McCathrion, hardly a nobody.

The 6-foot 11-inch Pepperdine center said he was also inspired by his teammates.

Pepperdine, which improved to 10-7 overall and 2-0 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, has played well in its first 2 conference games after losing in overtime last week to Boise State.

“We were a little down after Boise State,” Crawford said, but thought that Pepperdine played with “electricity” this week.

USF fell to 8-7 and 0-2.

Asbury said the key to the game was “to deny the ball down low to McCathrion.” More often than not, Crawford said no to McCathrion.

He added that when Crawford “gets his hands up and reacts, he can block shots with the best of them.” Two of Crawford’s blocks were of McCathrion shots.

Asbury said the Waves had received some help against USF from Loyola Marymount, which defeated the Dons Wednesday night and held McCathrion to a season-low 6 points.

Asbury said: “Having to play Loyola takes something out of you.”

Tom Lewis led Pepperdine with 18 points. He had 8 rebounds.

Sophomore forward Scott McWhorter scored 18 to pace the Dons.