Pepperdine and San Francisco Advance in WCC Tourney

The West Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament is underway in Las Vegas. On Sunday night the quarterfinals were on the docket. Santa Clara and Pepperdine took to the floor in the first game. In the nightcap it was Washington State and the University of San Francisco.

Santa Clara and Pepperdine:

This was a game that most people thought may not happen. Pepperdine was coming off an upset of Oregon State on Saturday night. The Beavers had handily beat the Waves in the very recent past and were thought to be the favorites to advance to the quarterfinals against Santa Clara.

However, that is why you play the game. The Waves beat the Beavers 77-73 to advance to meet the Broncos.

Santa Clara was the prohibited favorite coming into this game being the higher seed, better record, and having the better talent of the two schools. Pepperdine has already played a couple of games in the WCC Tournament, so they have the rhythm of playing, game day preparation, and have the momentum of winning games already.

Santa Clara got up quick on the Waves 19-8 in the opening minutes. The Broncos were shooting pretty well from the field and had the look of being in cruise control. Pepperdine slowly, but surely, started hitting shots and getting stops. The Waves clawed their way back into the game and eventually pulled even at 34-34 with a little over three minutes left in the first half.

At halftime it was a 40-36 lead for Santa Clara.

The second half was a different half for the Pepperdine Waves. Wave shooting percentage went way up and their confidence grew as well.

Santa Clara and Pepperdine were battling to see who was going to take control. The game became tied at 58 with a little under nine minutes to play. The Waves took a 66-60 lead with about 5:45 left in the game. You could tell the crowd was starting to sense a possible upset with Santa Clara.

Every possession became more crucial for both teams. With 2:24 left the Pepperdine lead was 74-71 and you could sense the confidence in their team. Conversely, you could see Santa Clara tense up. They kept looking at the clock, looking at each other trying to figure out what needed to happen on the court, and their body language was showing uncertainty.

Pepperdine opened a five point lead and at 76-71 with 1:18 left in the game. The Broncos hit a shot to pull within three points at 76-73 with 45 seconds left. The game was there for the Waves to take, but even with 10.3 seconds left Santa Clara had the ball and a chance to tie the game. It was not to be for Santa Clara. The 3-pointer was no good, the Broncos fouled, and hit a couple of free throws.

The celebration was on for Pepperdine. The Broncos hit a meaningless three pointer at the end of the game to make the final score 78-76. Pepperdine moves on to face St. Marys on Monday night in the WCC Semi-Finals.

Washington State and San Francisco:

In the nightcap of the the WCC Quarterfinals you had the #3 seed San Francisco Dons taking on the #6 seed Washington State.

The winner of this game will take on Gonzaga in the semi-finals.

San Francisco came into this game as the favorite with 23-8 record and looking to make a run at NCAA berth. The one aspect of this Dons team is that they defended the three point shot better than anyone in the WCC. Dons opponents shot a paltry 25.2% from behind the arc and the Dons opponents only made 4.8 threes a game which was a conference low. On the offensive side of the ball the Dons were the conference leaders in three point attempts at 26 per game and lead the conference in free throw attempts at 20 per game.

Could these things be the deciding factor for San Francisco to get another shot at Gonzaga? The Zags beat the Dons earlier in the year by 20 points. The Dons would love another shot at Gonzaga.

Washington State was also looking to make a statement. As one of the two Pac-12 teams who are playing in the West Coast Conference they wanted to make it apparent that they were not just here for the fun.

There has been a ton of change for Washington State the past year. New conference, new coach, and new players. Of the new players there were four that became starters.

Washington State came into this game with San Francisco fresh off their 94-77 win over Loyola Marymount in the third round game.

The first half was a bit of awkward play around the basketball. So many possessions ended in no points being scored. We are talking about two foot shots around the basket that just rolled off or bounced out. It wasn’t like it was one shot and out types of possessions. It was two or three times making an attempt at getting points and getting nothing out of it.

Physical play dominated early in the game with a Wazzu player hitting the ground after taking an elbow to face. Other players on both teams were hitting floor battling for possession. It created a tense atmosphere for both teams.

There was only one tie in the first half and that was at seven. After that it the lead for the Dons never got above five points. The halftime score was 34-32 San Francisco.

Second half started off with the Dons getting up 45-36 in the first four minutes of the second half. It was starting to feel like San Francisco was going to take control and send the Cougars packing.

Not so fast.

There’s grit inside these Cougars. Getting some timely turnovers, good shooting and some defensive stops the Cougars pulled within 52-50 with 12:14 left in the game. The momentum had changed and most of the Washington State fans inside the Orleans Arena came alive.

For the next few minutes it was back and forth with scoring with the Dons opening up a 60-55 lead with a little over nine minutes remaining.

San Francisco point guard, Robbie Beasley was a spark plug coming down the stretch. Beasley was hitting tough shots, three pointers, and even drew a technical foul after scoring a bucket while letting everybody around know about it. The lead for the Dons ballooned to a 10 point lead at 66-56 with 7:57 left in the game.

The Dons never let the Cougars get within five points after building that 10 point lead. San Fransisco played solid defense towards the end of the game to keep the game out of reach for Washington State.

Next up for San Francisco will be Gonzaga on Monday night.

Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver

Email: [email protected], Instagram: @dailywaiver, Tik-Tok: @dailywaiver