WCC TOURNAMENT : Waves Hold Off St. Mary’s, 94-83

Before the West Coast Conference tournament began, Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said he hoped his team wouldn’t be caught looking past anybody.

The second-seeded Waves were almost caught gazing ahead by seventh-seeded St. Mary’s Saturday night.

The Gaels got Pepperdine’s attention with torrid first-half shooting and by making 11 of 33 three-point baskets. St. Mary’s tied school and conference tournament records for three-point baskets and broke WCC and school records for attempts.

The Waves weathered the storm of three-pointers and held off St. Mary’s, 94-83, in the first round of the conference tournament at Loyola Marymount. They will play San Diego--an 80-74 winner over San Francisco Saturday--tonight at 7 in the tournament semifinals.

The Gaels (7-20) surprised Pepperdine by making eight of their first nine shots, senior forward James Dailey--who wasn’t supposed to play--making three of them.

Dailey had missed all but one of his team’s last seven games--and had made only a brief appearance in that--because of a back injury. He started, played 31 minutes and scored 23 points on eight-of-15 shooting.

Dailey’s three early baskets sparked his team to a 22-12 lead in the first 6 1/2 minutes.

Pepperdine (17-11) took its first lead when Rex Manu made two free throws for a 31-30 edge with 6:01 left in the half.

After that, Pepperdine went on a 19-4 run and led at halftime, 50-34.

St. Mary’s, which made only three of 12 three-point attempts in the first half, made eight of 21 in the second. Gael guard Mike Vontoure made three of his five three-pointers in the second half, and St. Mary’s twice pulled to within seven points.

Vontoure, who finished with a game-high 26 points, cut Pepperdine’s advantage to 79-73 with five minutes to play. But the Gaels began to tire, and Pepperdine began to pull away.

St. Mary’s Coach Paul Landreaux said he thought his team had “a chance to win the game down the stretch, but we missed some big three-point shots that would have kept us in (it).”

Asbury said his team had played well at times, “but I think we got a little comfortable in the second half and started coasting.”

Dexter Howard led Pepperdine with 24 points and 16 rebounds and Tom Lewis added 21 points.