Waves Work Overtime in 69-67 Loss to St. Mary’s

Another Saturday night, another disheartening setback for Pepperdine.

The Waves, no strangers to frustration this season, endured another lesson in humility by losing to St. Mary’s, 69-67, on Frank Knight’s two free throws with four seconds to play in the second overtime.

The game, played before a raucous homecoming crowd of 3,104 at Firestone Fieldhouse, took as many twists and turns as Pepperdine’s roller-coaster season. Afterward, Coach Lorenzo Romar could only reflect on what could have been after watching his team lose two-point leads in the final seconds of regulation and the first overtime.

“It was our game,” Romar said. “We played hard, but we just didn’t come up with the victory.”

Which is nothing new for Pepperdine (6-18, 4-8 in the West Coast Conference), now 0-9 on Saturday and 1-8 in games decided by six or fewer points. In addition, the Waves were denied their first successive victories, after beating Santa Clara on Friday.

Asked what the emotional toll might be, Romar said: “After what we’ve already gone through this year, this doesn’t concern me too much. We almost beat two of the top teams in the conference [this weekend]. We’ll bounce back.”

Bouncing back is something St. Mary’s (18-7, 8-4) did with uncanny success Saturday.

The Gaels, in a three-way tie for first place with Gonzaga and Santa Clara, took advantage of every Pepperdine lapse. They tied the score, 54-54, on Knight’s two free throws with two seconds left in regulation after a blocking foul against Bryan Hill, and again at 64-64 with one second left in the first overtime when Kamran Sufi split a sleeping Wave defense for a breakaway layup.

Romar questioned the call against Hill, which came in the lane against a driving Knight after Pepperdine had taken a 54-52 lead on a free throw by Marques Johnson (23 points) with nine seconds left in regulation.

“I would have liked to see the call go the other way when [Hill] was called for a block,” Romar said. “I would have liked to see us rewarded for playing good defense. . . . The game should have been over in regulation.”

The Waves took a 64-62 lead with seven seconds left in the first overtime on a free throw by Khary Hervey. But after he missed the second shot, St. Mary’s rebounded and Sufi, a 5-foot-10 senior, dribbled the length of the court to score.

“We weren’t able to keep him in front of us,” Romar said. “We didn’t do a good job.”

Given a second reprieve, St. Mary’s made Pepperdine pay. After Wave forward Marc McDowell made one of two free throws to tie the score, 67-67, the Gaels called timeout with 31 seconds left. Sufi took the inbounds pass and dribbled above the lane for several seconds before driving to the basket.

Sufi’s shot was blocked by Hill, but Knight came up with the ball and was fouled by Tommie Prince, setting up the game-winning free throws.

Knight, who did not play in St. Mary’s victory over Loyola Marymount on Friday because of a groin pull, came off the bench to lead the Gaels with 20 points.

“That was a gutsy performance by Pepperdine,” St. Mary’s Coach Ernie Kent said. “For them to beat Santa Clara [Friday] and come back and play the way they did against us, that tells you what the [conference] tournament is going to be like.”

That was little consolation for Romar.

“We played good enough to win,” he said. “But as good a team as St. Mary’s is, if you keep giving them second chances, they’re eventually going to get you.”