McGowan, Pepperdine Are Rebounding Just Fine

For a guy who isn’t shy about his affinity for putting the ball in the basket, Pepperdine’s Glen McGowan is finding that grabbing all the misses can be worthwhile as well.

Even as Colorado State threw three 7-foot players at him, McGowan hauled in a career-high 22 rebounds to go along with his season-high 31 points in leading the Waves to a 78-63 victory in front of 1,123 Monday night at Firestone Fieldhouse.

After dealing with numerous injuries in the early part of his Pepperdine career, the 6-foot-9 McGowan is showing newfound consistency in his senior year. His latest performance was his fourth consecutive double-double and sixth of the season.

In turn, he is silencing criticism about his rebounding that came from all angles, from coaches to scouts to his parents.

“I was challenged early in the year,” said McGowan, who is averaging 20.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. “Actually my father [Donald] has been getting on me about rebounding ever since I started playing basketball. He’d be saying that I was too big not to be rebounding.”

While the rest of his teammates took a bit to get going, the forward was energetic from the opening tip. Pepperdine (10-5) shot only 29% from the field in the first half, but McGowan cleaned up much of the mess as he grabbed 13 rebounds in the first half, including seven on the offensive end.

Despite playing with two sore thumbs, McGowan scored 15 of the Waves’ first 22 points. Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal moved his star to small forward to take more advantage of his athleticism.

“I think he’s really dedicated himself to rebounding,” Westphal said. “He’s been sensational on the boards.”

Pepperdine maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half in avenging last season’s 26-point loss.

The Waves were successful at neutralizing Colorado State’s size advantage by getting its 7-footers, Matt Nelson, Stuart Creason and Jason Smith, into foul trouble.

Guard Alex Acker had 18 points and forward Yakhouba Diawara had 12 points and nine rebounds. Jon Rakiecki led the Rams (8-5) with 18 points.

“They blew us out,” said Acker of last season’s game. “I got hurt about two or three plays into the game and I had to watch from the bench. They were laughing and high-fiving each other with five minutes left. Getting this one meant a lot.”

After a bad loss to Troy State in a tournament last month, Pepperdine enters West Coast Conference play with renewed confidence. Much of that can be attributed to the determined play of McGowan.

“People have been talking to Glen since high school about rebounding,” Westphal said. “He just decided to do it.”

Minnesota 93, Loyola Marymount 67 -- Rico Tucker scored 17 points, leading six Gophers in double figures in a rout of the Lions at Minneapolis.

Vincent Grier scored 15 points, Dan Coleman had 14, Brent Lawson and Spencer Tollackson each scored 12 and Jeff Hagen had 10 points for the Gophers, who shot 64% from the floor.

Minnesota (10-3) won its eighth straight game, matching its longest winning streak under Coach Dan Monson.

The Gophers open Big Ten Conference play Saturday when they play host to Penn State.

Matthew Knight led Loyola (8-5) with 17 points. The Lions open their WCC schedule Friday at home against San Francisco.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.