Pepperdine Loses McGowan for Season

Another day, another game, another Pepperdine player out for the season.

Already staggered by injuries and ailments, Pepperdine has lost energetic forward Glen McGowan for the rest of the season, Coach Paul Westphal said Sunday after the Waves’ 89-73 nonconference victory over Lipscomb before 437 fans at Pepperdine.

McGowan, a junior who could score inside or outside and had developed a reputation as a big-game player, is out because of a blood clot in his left arm.

In addition to the 6-foot-9 McGowan, 6-10 center Will Kimble is out for the season and probably will never play again because of a heart condition.

“This is about as bad as I’ve seen,” Westphal said. “It’s probably the two most irreplaceable guys for us. We don’t have any guys with size and experience after them.”

McGowan sat out the Waves’ first five games while recovering from knee surgery, then scored seven points against Oregon on Dec. 14.

After that game, McGowan’s left arm was swollen and a blood clot was discovered.

The hope that McGowan would return has now been replaced by the reality that Pepperdine begins West Coast Conference play Jan. 9 at Portland without an established low-post presence.

“Those are big men we needed,” said guard Terrance Johnson. “These are things we need to fight through.”

McGowan averaged 9.8 points last season and was especially effective in big games against WCC rival Gonzaga. McGowan had 19 points and nine rebounds at home against the Bulldogs last season and followed that with 26 points at Gonzaga. The Waves tied Gonzaga for the regular-season WCC title last season.

“He had shown top quality against the top teams we’ve played,” Westphal said.

Pepperdine had other problems before the game against Lipscomb. Senior Jimmy Miggins, the Waves’ leading scorer, was benched for the first nine minutes because he missed a pregame meal.

It didn’t really matter.

Pepperdine took a 31-9 lead with 6:37 left in the first half on a three-point play by Miggins, and was never seriously threatened by Lipscomb, an NCAA independent located in Nashville that will join the Atlantic Sun Conference next year.

Lipscomb managed to close within 12 in the last few minutes, but the Waves (6-4) extended their lead without much stress.

Miggins scored 20 points and guard Alex Acker had 17 for Pepperdine.

Taking into account the competition, Pepperdine played better than it did in a 77-61 loss Friday against Utah, where the Waves were badly outrebounded and made three of 22 three-point shots.

“We knew we were going on a break [until Dec. 28] and we knew we needed this game,” Westphal said.

Guard Ryan Roller scored 25 points for Lipscomb (3-8).

-- Mike Bresnahan

UC Irvine 62, St. Mary’s 50 -- Freshman Mike Efevberha scored a season-high 17 points in his first start and led the Anteaters (4-3) over the Gaels (5-4) at Moraga.

St. Mary’s held only one lead, at 6-5. UC Irvine (4-3) went on a 12-1 run with Jordan Harris making two three-point shots and two free throws to ignite the rally.

The Anteaters held St. Mary’s without a basket for 8:24 as they took command.

They also held the Gaels without a basket the final 4:08 of the first half and the first 4:05 of the second half, increasing a four-point lead to 13 during that span.

St. Mary’s limited UC Irvine to 33.3% shooting, but the Anteaters were five for 10 from three-point range in the first half as they built a 33-24 lead.

In the second half, UC Irvine made 17 of 18 free throws to maintain the margin.

St. Mary’s cut the lead to four on a Daniel Kickert three-pointer with 7:31 left, but steals by Stanislav Zuzak and Harris helped the Anteaters fend off the Gaels.

Efevberha had 12 of his 17 points in the first half, and Harris had eight of his 10 during the early run.

Southern Illinois 86, Cal State Northridge 74 -- Darren Brooks scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Salukis (4-2) over the Matadors (6-2) at Carbondale, Ill.

John Clark led Northridge with 21 points. Ian Boylan scored 13 points and Curtis Slaughter had 11.