Tired Pepperdine Barely Wins : College basketball: Waves survive cold-shooting first half and beat St. Mary’s, 54-46.

It wasn’t the prettiest game Pepperdine has played, but the Waves’ record West Coast Conference winning streak is still alive.

The Waves survived an off shooting night and a slow-paced tempo for a 54-46 victory over St. Mary’s on Saturday night before 2,847 at McKeon Pavilion.

The victory extended Pepperdine’s conference win streak to 37 games. The Waves, 13-3 overall and 4-0 in the WCC, have the longest active conference streak of any NCAA Division I team.

“I think the mark of a champion is a team that can play poorly and still win, and that’s what Pepperdine did,” said St. Mary’s Coach Ernie Kent, whose team fell to 5-10 and 1-3. “I don’t know how Pepperdine played last night, but I know this wasn’t their best game.”

The Waves had to come from behind to beat the University of San Francisco, 71-66, Friday night.

“We had the fatigue factor kick in tonight,” Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said. “We had a lot of things that went wrong, but our defense and experience shored us up in the second half.”

Pepperdine got off to a fast start, opening a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes.

St. Mary’s responded with a 13-2 run over the next six minutes to take its only lead of the first half, 13-12, on a dunk by forward A.J. Rollins with 10:12 to play.

After holding a 23-20 lead at halftime, Pepperdine ran off the first eight points of the second half to extend their advantage to 31-20 with 16:39 remaining.

The Waves didn’t gain the lead for good until forward Dana Jones made it 46-44 on a jump shot with 2:37 left.

“Every time we’d get an eight or 10-point lead, they’d hit a three-pointer,” Asbury said. “We just couldn’t seem to shake them, but that’s the way a lot of games are on the road in this conference.”

St. Mary’s, which shot only 42.9%, stayed close by virtue of the long-range shooting of guard Darrell Daniel and forward John Levitt.

Daniel scored 15 points, all on three-point shots. Levitt added 11 points, making three three-pointers.

The Waves relied mostly on their front line of center Derek Noether and forwards Byron Jenson and Jones. Noether finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, Jones with 17 points and eight rebounds and Jenson with 12 points.

But Asbury said the defense of Noether and Jenson made the difference.

“We just played real well defensively, and I thought Noether and Jenson had a couple of big all-around games,” Asbury said.

The Waves shot only 34.6% in the first half before making 63.6% in the second half to finish at 47.9% for the game.

“They are a team that does not beat themselves,” Kent said. “They play sloppy sometimes, but only if you play sloppy. They know how to play well enough to win in the end, and that’s why they’ve won so many in a row.”