Gonzaga Holds On for Victory

The 24 victories. The regular-season conference championship. The healthy power ranking.

What does it get Pepperdine?

Maybe a few winks of sleep this week while waiting for the NCAA tournament to decide who’s in and who’s out.

The Waves blew a chance at completely peaceful slumber by nodding off in overtime and falling to Gonzaga, 69-65, Monday night in the West Coast Conference tournament final before 3,481 at Toso Pavilion.

The Bulldogs (24-8), who made an inspired run to the round of eight last season, earned an automatic NCAA berth for the second year in a row.

Pepperdine (24-8) must hope for the favor of the selection committee. The Waves, who are 16-3 since Jan. 3 and hold an estimated power ranking of No. 45, like their chances.

But as of the final buzzer Monday night, their fate is out of their control.

“There is no question we have done the things necessary to get into the tournament,” Coach Jan van Breda Kolff said.

Pepperdine’s last chance came with four seconds to play in overtime on Tezale Archie’s three-point shot with Gonzaga leading, 68-65.

“It was a broken play and with the clock winding down I tried to create something,” Archie said.

Gonzaga made five free throws in the first minute of the extra period. Not until Craig Lewis made a three-pointer with 2:18 to go did Pepperdine pull within three.

This marked the first time in the 14 years of the tournament that the top-seeded teams met in the final. Pepperdine and Gonzaga split two regular-season games, each winning at home, and looked toward this game as the rubber match.

“It was an unbelievable win,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said. “We beat a very good basketball team.”

With Gonzaga leading in regulation, 58-56, Pepperdine forced a shot-clock violation with 57 seconds left. Nick Sheppard put back a missed shot to tie the score.

Gibbs and Sheppard forced a turnover near the Gonzaga basket with 30 seconds remaining, giving the Waves the last shot, which Archie missed with three seconds left.

Most of the Waves wore white headbands as a display of unity, and their tenacious defense kept them close despite repeated offensive miscues.

Richie Frahm and Matt Santangelo, Gonzaga’s leading scorers, were held in check. But Casey Calvary dominated inside, scoring 28 points, and guard Ryan Floyd, starting only because of an Achilles’ tendon injury to Mike Nilson, contributed 14 points.

“Pepperdine likes to stay on the perimeter and it gave me one-on-one opportunities,” Calvary said.

Brandon Armstrong, Pepperdine’s leading scorer, missed his only shot and played six minutes in the first half because he picked up two early fouls. The sophomore guard came out strong in the second half, scoring six points on darting moves into the key during a surge that enabled the Waves to close within 51-50.

The teams exchanged defensive stands for several minutes and Pepperdine missed several chances to take the lead. Armstrong followed his own miss to score from the key and pull Pepperdine to within 58-56 with 1:39 to play.

The first half could be measured in bumps and bruises. Calvary committed an intentional foul on Sheppard one minute into the game, four players ended up in a pile after a wild scramble for the ball four minutes later and Gonzaga’s Zach Gourde committed an intentional foul on David Lalazarian with eight minutes left in the half.