Waves Remain in Title Chase
A once sure-fire NCAA tournament berth now made a little less certain by its loss to Gonzaga, Pepperdine faced some monumental games this week as it tries to claim a piece of the West Coast Conference regular-season title.
The pressure was on Friday night, but the Waves weren’t fazed by it against San Diego, remaining in a first-place tie by holding off the Toreros, 90-79, before 1,725 at Firestone Fieldhouse.
The victory adds to the importance of tonight’s conference finale against Santa Clara. A win for Pepperdine (19-7, 12-1) can clinch a tie for the championship and the Waves win it outright if St Mary’s upsets Gonzaga.
Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal, who has embraced all the tournament talk in his first season, said the Waves have been dealing with their own self-induced pressure all year. Being on the NCAA bubble isn’t adding any more stress.
“We’ve been playing for the tournament since the first game of the season,” Westphal said. “Every game, you’ve got to prove yourself. The first thing is to win 20 games, then to win conference, then to win the conference tournament and then we can take that next step.”
Terrance Johnson shook off the flu and a five-point effort at Gonzaga with a team-high 23 points. Jimmy Miggins scored 22, including 14 in the first half as Pepperdine built a 51-39 lead.
Despite not having the services of key reserve Glen McGowan, the Waves overwhelmed San Diego (14-12, 6-7) with depth and athleticism. Add some hot outside shooting and they were unstoppable, at least for 20 minutes.
Pepperdine built its halftime lead by making 17 of its first 24 shots. Miggins had eight points in the first five minutes as he took apart San Diego’s interior defense with impressive spin moves for easy short jumpers.
“That [Gonzaga] game was one I wanted to make up for,” Johnson said. “Then I didn’t practice but once this week so I was just trying to get my rhythm back. I had it in the first half.”
Eric Stephens
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No. 7 Gonzaga 70, San Francisco 54--Cory Violette scored 18 points as Gonzaga celebrated its highest ranking ever with a victory at San Francisco.
Dan Dickau had 17 as the Bulldogs (25-3, 12-1) won their 10th straight, and 22nd in 23 games overall.
Shamell Stallworth scored 17 points to lead the Dons (12-14, 7-6), who lost their third straight despite playing before their first sellout crowd of the season. San Francisco had won five of its last six home games.
Darrell Tucker recorded his 16th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Gonzaga, which has been ranked a school-record 11 consecutive weeks, is off to the best start in its 44 years as a Division I member.
Associated Press
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Santa Clara 67, Loyola Marymount 59--Freshman forward Andy Osborn had 18 points and eight rebounds to help the Lions mount two second-half comeback attempts, but fell short, suffering their 10th defeat in a row in front of 1,706 at Gersten Pavilion.
Santa Clara (13-13, 8-5) scored the last eight points of the first half and 10 of the first 12 points of the second half to take its largest lead of the game, 38-27.
Loyola (9-18, 2-11) cut the 11-point deficit to one point with a 17-7 run to pull within 45-44 with 10:05 to play.
The Broncos responded with the next seven points to push the lead back to 52-44.
With Santa Clara leading, 58-49, freshman guard Charles Brown, who finished with nine points, sparked another rally that cut Loyola’s deficit to three twice in the last five minutes.
The Lions pulled within 60-57 with 2:32 to play, but were forced to foul down the stretch and Santa Clara made seven of eight free throws in the final minute.
Lauren Peterson