Pepperdine’s Hopes Dashed by San Diego

The final seconds ticked off an end to a game Saturday that typified the season for the Pepperdine men’s basketball team.

At times thrilling, at times bewildering, always entertaining yet ultimately unsatisfying.

“I was thinking about that,” Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal said. “[The game] definitely did.”

The Waves lost a roller coaster of a game to San Diego, 86-80, in the West Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals at the Leavey Center. And so the hopes that were raised with a 7-1 start that included a huge victory over nationally ranked Wisconsin dissolved into a 17-14 season.

The lasting moments of Saturday’s game won’t be easy to forget for Pepperdine’s Yakhouba Diawara or San Diego’s Brandon Gay.

Diawara, a native of France who came to Pepperdine last year from a junior college in Idaho, missed all 18 of his shot attempts and managed only two points. The bruising forward missed five three-point tries, but many of his shots were futile attempts inside against the Toreros’ tall front line of Gay, Brice Vounang and Nick Lewis.

“He tries to drop that shoulder and go through you,” Lewis said. “When he drops that shoulder, we needed to keep our ground and it makes it pretty hard for him to shoot over us.”

Westphal thought they were doing more than playing tough defense.

“I think he was taking it real hard to the basket and ending up on his back a lot,” he said. “It’s hard to make very many baskets on your back.... Obviously, things didn’t go his way tonight.”

After a foul call on Keith Jarbo that negated a possible turnover during a late rally, Westphal became so irritated with the officiating that he went behind one of the baskets and took a seat in the front row of the stands.

He wasn’t the only one frustrated.

“It seemed like it was tough to get a call [inside],” said senior forward Glen McGowan, who had 20 points and eight rebounds. “We were trying to make things happen and it seemed like we didn’t get a break at all.”

Meanwhile, Gay had a game players dream about. The 6-foot-8 senior forward made all seven of his three-point attempts in the first half and had 25 points on the way to a career-high 34.

He was helped by Lewis, who had 17 points and eight rebounds. Vounang and Corey Belser grabbed 11 rebounds each to hurt the Waves inside and open up space for their hot-shooting teammate.

“If you’re going to leave Brandon wide open like that, then he’s going to kill you,” Lewis said.

After lifting his team to a 51-45 halftime lead, Gay would make seven of eight free throws late in the second half to help the fourth-seeded Toreros (16-12) advance to tonight’s semifinal against top-seeded Gonzaga.

In the first half, Pepperdine junior guard Alex Acker, who finished with a team-high 31 points, and Gay resembled gunslingers engaged in a duel. Acker scored in a variety of ways -- three-point shots, slam dunks, free throws, floaters in the lane -- in getting 21 points.

Gay often answered Acker’s brilliant moves with his marksmanship. In one stretch, he ended three consecutive possessions with three-point baskets.

“It was like you hit a couple and you get in that groove,” Gay said.

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Santa Clara 67, San Francisco 60 -- Kyle Bailey scored 17 points as the Broncos (15-15) made an 11-point halftime lead stand up to advance to the semifinals against second-seeded St. Mary’s.

Tyrone Riley led the Dons (16-13) with 18 points.