Made it home for the Super Bowl and got my homework done on the plane — just didn't have a chance to post it until now with a quick connection in Portland.

You know the routine. The links: S-R game story and another from A.P. Elsewhere, BYU and LMU stayed right on GU's heels. Free throws proved costly for Portland in a home loss to BYU, and Loyola Marymount staged a huge comeback to beat San Francisco.

Read on for my day-after Pepperdine post.

Gonzaga got back on the winning track, but it wasn't easy. The Bulldogs let a 15-point lead dwindle to 2 before going on a decisive 10-0 run in the second half. Gonzaga's 72-60 victory keeps the Bulldogs in second place in the WCC. Saint Mary's is 11-0, GU 8-2 and LMU and BYU are at 8-3.

Gonzaga returns home to face Saint Mary's on Thursday and LMU on Saturday.

Here's a link to my game story that will run in Sunday's S-R (I left the unedited version below because it has a few more details/quotes).

Check back tomorrow for a day-after post.

Gonzaga took care of business and an outmanned Pepperdine squad 73-45 last night at the MAC. Here's my game story and here are other links of interest: BYU outlasted LMU in Los Angeles and Rob Jones scored 31 points to lead his current team Saint Mary's past his former team San Diego.

While Gonzaga has a day to prepare for Santa Clara, we took an Internet-plagued morning to prepare a day-after Pepperdine post. Read on for more.

Good evening from the McCarthey Athletic Center, where Gonzaga thumped Pepperdine 73-45 tonight. GU won its seventh in a row to improve to 12-2, 2-0 in the WCC. The Bulldogs have defeated Pepperdine 21 consecutive times.

You can read my unedited game story below and check back tomorrow for a day-after post.

Pepperdine coach Tom Asbury is retiring and associate head coach Marty Wilson will be elevated to head coach, the WCC school announced Thursday afternoon. A press conference will be held Friday. More here.

With its top two scorers battling illness, Gonzaga had a number of players contribute in a 63-44 win over Pepperdine. Elias Harris had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Sam Dower added 13 points and eight rebounds.

Read on for my game story and check back tomorrow for a day-after post.

Elias Harris scored 15 points and Sam Dower added 13 as Gonzaga beat Pepperdine 63-44 on Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Bulldogs held Pepperdine to just 27.4 percent shooting. No Waves reached double figures.

GU improved to 17-9, 7-3 in the WCC. Pepperdine dropped to 11-17, 5-6.

More in about two hours.

Both teams are on the floor at Firestone Fieldhouse for pre-game warmpus with tipoff coming up at the top of the hour.

Gonzaga's Steven Gray had an IV on Friday after battling sickness during Thursday's win over LMU (which was crushed by Portland earlier today). Gray had company as center Rob Sacre began feeling ill late Thursday or early Friday. Both went through warmups and looked to be OK.

Head to Twitter.com/SRjimm for in-game updates.

Check back here later tonight for a game story.

Gonzaga senior Courtney Vandersloot took the suspense out early in her march to 1,000 career assists but the Bulldogs had a much tougher time with Pepperdine Saturday afternoon.

Vandersloot notched her third assist of the day and 1,00th of her career just 3:32 into the game to become the seventh NCAA D-I player with a grand, the fourth woman, on an inbounds play to Kayla Standish. But after opening a 16-6 lead the Zags went ice cold and it was a battle the rest of the way.

In the end, the Zags pulled it out, using a 13-0 run to erase a nine-point deficit in the second half and then slowing inching away to win their 12th straight game, 25th straight in the West Coast Conference 73-59.

There was addition concern as Vandersloot went down with 45 seconds left and was very slow to get up. Also, in the first half Claire Rapp went out with a left ankle injury, spending the second half on crutches.

Kayla Standish had a monster game with 24 points and 19 rebounds, one shy of the school record and Vandersloot had 17 points and nine assists and Katelan Redmon had 17 points.

We're approaching this game a little differently, columnist John Blanchette is writing about Vandersloot's milestone. I'll post the link to his story and the photos when they're available.

Gonzaga takes on Pepperdine tonight and the Waves have quietly put together a solid conference season.

Pepperdine, 3-11 in the WCC last season, are 5-5 after knocking off Portland on Thursday. The Waves are just a half-game behind fourth-place Santa Clara (5-4) as teams continue jockeying for favorable seeding in the WCC Tournament.

As mentioned in an S-R article earlier this week, Pepperdine will be without guard Keion Bell (pictured above with GU's Manny Arop and Kelly Olynyk), who has been suspended for the rest of the season, but the Waves have won two straight without their leading scorer. More on GU-Pepperdine here.

Big game tonight at War Memorial Gym as San Francisco (13-11, 7-2) entertains Saint Mary's (21-4, 9-1), but if there was a word online about the matchup I couldn't find it in the Bay Area papers.

Here's my game story from Gonzaga's 92-75 victory over Pepperdine on Thursday.

Check back tomorrow for a day-after post and a liltte bit more on Saturday's opponent, Loyola Marymount, which is in overtime against Portland at the time of this post.

Gonzaga's Big Three of Rob Sacre, Steven Gray and Elias Harris combined for 62 points to lead the Bulldogs to 92-75 victory over visiting Pepperdine on Thursday.

Sacre had a career-high 24 points on 8 of 8 field goals and 8 of 8 free throws. He played just 21 minutes. Gray made five 3-pointers and scored 19, equaling the most he's scored since he hurt his back seven games ago. He also had nine assists, tying his career high. Harris made 8 of 9 shots and scored 19 points.

Gonzaga led by 21 late in the first half. Pepperdine got as close as 13 in the second half before the Zags pulled away.

Gonzaga (12-5, 2-0 WCC) won its eighth straight game.

Back with complete game story in about two hours.
  

Gonzaga's Big Three of Rob Sacre, Steven Gray and Elias Harris combined for 62 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 92-75 victory over visiting Pepperdine on Thursday.

Sacre had a career-high 24 points on 8 of 8 field goals and 8 of 8 free throws. He played just 21 minutes. Gray made five 3-pointers and scored 19, equaling the most he's scored since he hurt his back seven games ago. He also had nine assists, tying his career high. Harris made 8 of 9 shots and scored 19 points.

Gonzaga led by 21 late in the first half. Pepperdine got as close as 13 in the second half before the Zags pulled away.

Gonzaga (12-5, 2-0 WCC) won its eighth straight game.

Back with complete game story in about two hours.

A couple of items before we shut it down for the night. Pepperdine coach Tom Asbury won't be on the sideline for Thursday's game against Gonzaga. He'll be with his first grandchild, who was born prematurely Sunday.

Also, Pepperdine's Keion Bell, who scored 37 points in a 91-84 loss to Gonzaga last season at the McCarthey Athletic Center, practiced Wednesday night and is listed as probable for Thursday's game. He's missed the last three games with an ankle injury.

Read on for more on Asbury and the matchup with Pepperdine.

Top-seeded Gonzaga took all the suspense out of the WCC women’s title game with a 26-5 run early in the second half and went on to pound No. 3 Pepperdine 76-48 on Monday at the Orleans Arena.

The victory gives No. 17 Gonzaga (27-4) an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. It was GU’s second consecutive WCC Tournament championship. Gonzaga thumped the Waves (20-11) 107-64 and 87-45 in the regular season.

Courtney Vandersloot had 19 points and eight assists. Heather Bowman scored 14 points and grabbed four rebounds. Kayla Standish chipped in 10 points and a team-high 14 rebounds. Vivian Frieson added seven points and 12 boards.

More in about two hours.

Gonzaga’s opponent in the WCC women’s tournament championship will be third-seeded Pepperdine, which rallied from nine down in the second half to defeat No. 2 Saint Mary’s 62-56.

Miranda Ayim led four Waves (20-10) in double figures with 13 points, including a jumper with 17.5 seconds left to put Pepperdine in front 60-56.

Gonzaga crushed Pepperdine 107-64 and 87-45 during the regular season. Tipoff is at noon.

“I think it’s a mental thing,” guard Lauren Bell said of the title matchup. “Gonzaga has always been the team to beat and I think a lot of teams are intimidated by them, I think if we come out ready to play and know who we are, then we’ll be fine.”.

Added Waves coach Julie Rousseau: “Every time we’ve played them we have not played well. It’s going to take every bit of mental toughenss and belief in ourselves that we can get the job done. We know how great a team Gonzaga is and we know our work is cut out for us. … We’re not going to forfeit the game. We’ve got to play it and we’re excited about being there.”

Gonzaga took care of business early, building an 18-point lead in the first six minutes and cruised to a 72-54 win over Pepperdine on Saturday.

The win keeps GU (22-5 overall) in first place in the WCC with a 10-2 record. Saint Mary’s is 9-3. Portland dropped to 8-4 after losing to Loyola Marymount in overtime.

Read on for my unedited game story.

Gonzaga is on the doorstep of another WCC championship.

The Bulldogs routed Pepperdine 72-54 Saturday. GU (22-5, 10-2) can wrap up at least a share of the crown with a win over Santa Clara at the McCarthey Athletic Center on Thursday. Two wins would secoure an outright championship. WCC has won or shared nine straight WCC titles.

Gonzaga built a 40-19 halftime lead and essentially traded baskets in the second half. The Bulldogs led by as many as 24 in the second half..

Matt Bouldin scored 18 points, Elias Harris 13 and Robert Sacre and Steven Gray each had 12. Sacre blocked a career-high six shots and Gonzaga equaled its school-record with 11 swats. Bouldin had five assists.

The Bulldogs made 27 of 51 shots (52.9 percent).

Keion Bell, who scored 37 points in the Waves’ 91-84 loss in Spokane, led Pepperdine with 14 points. He made 4 of 12 shots and 5 of 7 free throws.

Back with a game story in about two hours.

Two nights after struggling to make shots in a 74-66 loss to LMU, the Gonzaga men’s basketball team couldn’t miss for the first nine minutes of Saturday’s game against Pepperdine.

During that time frame, Gonzaga went 10 for 10 from the field, including 5 of 5 on 3-pointers, and 3 of 3 at the free-throw line to build a 28-12 lead en route to a 40-19 advantage at the break. The Zags unleashed their transition game when they were able to get the rebound or after a couple of Waves’ turnovers.

Steven Gray had 10 points before five minutes had elapsed. He made his first four shots, two of those were 3s, and finished the half with 12 points. Matt Bouldin added a pair of 3s and had 10 points to go with three assists.

Gonzaga’s defense was solid, holding Pepperdine to 7 of 31 shooting (22.6 percent). Mychel Thompson had a team-high seven points, but made just 2 of 9 attempts. Of the Waves’ first 12 points, nine came on putbacks.

More at the final buzzer.

About 20 minutes before tipoff and antiquated Firestone Fieldhouse is slowly filling up. Last I heard there was some general admission tickets available but not many.

Ex-Zag and current Laker Adam Morrison is here to watch the Bulldogs. Pat Riley is seated alongside a handful of NBA scouts just behind the scorer’s table. There’s a seat reserved for Mike Dunleavy, who was also at Thursday’s game with LMU.

The Zags will attempt to bounce back from Thursday’s loss to LMU. GU hasn’t lost to Pepperdine here since Jan. 2002, an 88-79 setback.

Back at half with an update.