Waves Are Too Small in Loss
Considering that Pepperdine couldn’t beat Saint Mary’s with Glen McGowan in the lineup last week, it seemed unlikely the Waves would be able to do it without their second-leading scorer and rebounder Sunday night.
The undermanned Waves did play some of their best basketball of the season in the opening minutes, but then the odds caught up with them.
Saint Mary’s guard Paul Marigney closed the first half by making a half-court shot at the buzzer, completing an 18-2 run from which Pepperdine never fully recovered in a 79-74 semifinal loss in the West Coast Conference tournament at the Leavey Center.
“That stretch in the first half ... ultimately was too much to overcome,” Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal said.
Second-seeded Saint Mary’s (19-11) will play top-seeded Gonzaga (26-2) at 9 tonight in the championship game, which will be televised by ESPN. Gonzaga defeated fifth-seeded Santa Clara, 63-62, on Sunday.
McGowan sat at the end of the bench in street clothes after injuring his right knee in the closing minutes of Pepperdine’s quarterfinal victory over Loyola Marymount on Saturday.
Westphal said McGowan would probably need surgery to repair torn cartilage.
Without the 6-foot-9 junior, Pepperdine frequently was at the mercy of the taller and deeper Saint Mary’s front line. The Gaels’ 45-33 halftime lead was largely built on a 27-13 advantage in rebounds.
“That was the whole game,” Westphal said. “They just obliterated us on the boards in the first half.”
Despite shooting only 36.9%, Saint Mary’s created numerous second-chance shots with a season-high 22 offensive rebounds.
“That’s where [Pepperdine] felt the absence of McGowan,” Saint Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett said.
But the third-seeded Waves (15-16) didn’t miss a beat at the start. With forward Yakhouba Diawara scoring 12 of the team’s first 14 points on his way to a game-high 26, Pepperdine led by as many as seven in the early going.
The Waves got a big lift from forward Robert Turner, who started in McGowan’s place and scored 10 points in the first half, including three consecutive baskets for a 27-20 lead with 8:12 left.
Pepperdine scored only one more field goal the rest of the half as Saint Mary’s took control. But the Gaels couldn’t sustain the momentum, missing their first 14 shots in the second half.
The Waves cut their deficit to one, 58-57, on Jesse Pinegar’s three-point basket with 7:18 to play, before Saint Mary’s responded with a 7-0 run. The Gaels led by at least three the rest of the way.
Guard E.J. Rowlands, using his quickness to frequently make drives to the basket, led the Gaels with 21 points and Marigney, who scored a career-best 40 in a 104-95 victory over Pepperdine on Feb. 29, had 19 points and 11 rebounds.