Gonzaga Has the Title All to Itself

There has been no question which is the best team in the West Coast Conference. And now Gonzaga has the outright regular-season conference championship to prove it.

The fifth-ranked Bulldogs, who claimed a share of the title with a win at Loyola Marymount on Saturday, wrapped it up all for themselves with an 81-71 victory against Pepperdine on Monday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison scored 26 points but made only seven of 17 shots.

But the national player-of-the-year candidate did not have to be a one-man show Monday. J.P. Batista and Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes picked up the slack with 16 and 17 points, respectively, as the Bulldogs (23-3, 12-0) won their 14th straight game and stayed on track for their second undefeated conference season in the last three years.

Despite the win, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few wasn’t especially thrilled by his team’s performance.

“We’ll have to handle our poise better than we did tonight,” Few said. “I think we were frustrated, and Pepperdine had a lot to do with that. They played us tough, played us physical and got after us.”

The Waves (7-17, 3-9) got 25 points from Tashaan Forehan-Kelly and 12 points from Kingsley Costain but lost their season-high fifth in a row.

Pepperdine got off to a 19-14 start in the first eight minutes. But the Waves went cold, going nearly eight minutes without a field goal. Gonzaga overtook Pepperdine with a 16-2 run, and did it without Morrison, who missed his first five shots on the way to a 39-32 halftime lead.

Pepperdine continued the chase in the second half, closing to within 50-46 on a dunk by Jarrad Henry at the 14:53 mark. But that was as close as the Waves got. With 3:29 left, Gonzaga took its biggest lead, 74-60 on a Morrison basket.

-- Mike Terry

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Portland 71, Loyola Marymount 59 -- Pooh Jeter scored 26 points and Darren Cooper had 22 to lead the visiting Pilots (10-16, 4-8) over the Lions (11-15, 8-4) in a WCC game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.