Bulldogs Slam Waves Gonzaga To Face Portland For Title

A saying holds that when one door shuts, another opens.

So it was that when the door to the West Coast Conference Tournament title was slammed on Santa Clara’s toes Saturday, it cleared the way for the Gonzaga Bulldogs to race to the title game and stand only a win away from their second straight automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

The Bulldogs (21-7) rolled over the Waves of Pepperdine Sunday by a 76-48 count - the largest margin of victory in a semifinal game in the history of the WCC Tournament. It means that GU will play Portland tonight at 9 in a game televised on ESPN.

The first-round loss by top-seeded Santa Clara (Santa Claus?) provided a nice gift for the Bulldogs, a shot at the lowest seed in the tournament.

This was not really even a fair fight as the Waves lost the conference’s leading scorer, Gerald Brown, to an injury against Santa Clara, while starting forward Marques Johnson went down with a foot injury just 5 minutes into the game Sunday.

“Injuries after injuries,” Pepperdine interim coach Marty Wilson said. “Without Gerald Brown and Marques Johnson, we’ve got a huge hill to climb; that’s 32 points we’re missing and we’ve only got six guys left - and three of them are freshmen.”

GU coach Dan Fitzgerald and his staff arrived at a plot to exploit the Pep lack of depth - substitute early and run like crazy.

“The break did two things, we got the ball out and got dunks off it and then it got guys open for jump shots,” said Fitzgerald, who turned 54 on Sunday.

It also got junior guard Lorenzo Rollins involved in the attack, as he led the Bulldogs with 18 points. Jon Kinloch had 15, Scott Snider 14 and Paul Rogers brought down 11 rebounds to go with his 13 points.

“That’s the way we used to play at home (Tacoma),” Rollins said. “Coach said we run a structured game, but if we see an opportunity, push it.”

“Lorenzo is doing a good job of not letting missed shots get to him,” Fitzgerald said. “And I think Jon Kinloch has played excellent basketball in the last 48 hours.”

The out-manned Waves played hard throughout, but simply wore out.

“They gave us a good game for 25 minutes, but then they just got tired,” Snider said.

“I’m really proud of our effort,” Fitzgerald said. “There were two runs in the game at 17-16 when we got after it defensively and broke it, and they had a short run in the second half (cutting the deficit to five) and we went to a zone and our kids did a great job with it.”

The win, Fitzgerald claimed, guarantees a postseason berth for the Bulldogs - the NCAA if they win tonight, the NIT if they lose tonight, and perhaps an NCAA at-large bid with a loss tonight.

Santa Clara, which opened the season with impressive wins, would be the other team considered from the conference for an at-large bid. But Fitzgerald scoffed at that.

“We will play again, there’s no question in my mind about that,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve played the best (in the league) since January, we’re the hottest team in the league, no doubt in my mind.

“I think if the league is going to promote one team (for an at-large berth), they have to promote the teams that play on Monday night (in the title game).

“Now is when (good play) counts,” Fitzgerald added. “Would you rather be hot around Turkey Day or to be hot around Easter? The only guys who talk about at-larges are the guys who get their butts kicked on Saturday.”

Bulldogs point guard Kyle Dixon passed out 11 assists and the Bulldogs shot 49.2 percent from the floor to Pep’s 36.8.

“We made a little rally but they went into a zone and that bothered us quite a bit,” said Wilson, who will be replaced by UCLA assistant Lorenzo Romar as the Waves’ head coach after the season.

Gonzaga 76, Pepperdine 48

Pepperdine (10-18) - Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Hill 4-8 2-2 10, Van Der Putten 2-8 0-2 4, Hervey 5-10 2-2 12, Archie 5-17 0-0 11, Bragg 2-7 0-2 4, Griffin 3-7 1-2 7. Totals 21-57 5-10 48.

Gonzaga (21-7) - Rollins 6-15 2-2 18, Kinloch 5-8 2-2 15, Snider 6-9 2-4 14, Dixon 2-5 0-0 4, Rogers 5-12 3-5 13, Leasure 0-1 0-0 0, Williams 2-2 0-0 4, Bond 1-3 0-0 2, Nemeth 1-1 0-0 2, Morgan 0-2 2-2 2, Ball 0-0 0-0 0, Kincaid 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 29-59 76.

Halftime-Gonzaga 39, Pepperdine 24. 3-point goals- Pepperdine 1-9 (Archie 1-6, Bragg 0-1, Hervey 0-2), Gonzaga 7-17 (Rollins 4-11, Kinloch 3-5, Dixon 0-1). Fouled out-none. Rebounds-Pepperdine 32 (Archie 10), Gonzaga 38 (Rogers 11). Assists-Pepperdine 5 (Hervey 2), Gonzaga 21 (Dixon 11). Total fouls-Pepperdine 12, Gonzaga 12. A-NA.

Portland 65, San Diego 52

Kweemada King scored 16 points as the Pilots beat the Toreros in the other WCC semifinal.

Chivo Anderson added 11 points and Lemont Daniels 10 for fifth-seeded Portland (18-10).

Brian Miles scored 13 points for sixthseeded San Diego, which finished 14-14.

After leading 28-27 at the half, Portland outscored San Diego 20-7 during the opening 10:20 of the second half while holding the Toreros to one field goal during that span. San Diego shot only 28.6 percent from the field in the game.

San Diego (14-14) - Obasohan 0-4 0-0 0, Miles 4-14 5-8 13, Bruso 3-9 2-3 8, Fizdale 2-6 0-1 5, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Speech 3-8 1-3 8, Raffo 0-0 0-0 0, Black 2-4 3-4 7, Williams 1-6 2-4 5, Jacobsen 1-3 4-6 6, Mutrie 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney 0-0 0-0 0, Hill 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-56 17-29 52.

Portland (18-10) - Daniels 4-8 2-4 10, Brainard 4-11 1-2 9, Klosterman 3-7 1-3 7, Anderson 4-6 1-2 11, Holton 1-6 0-0 2, Rainwater 3-5 1-1 8, King 7-13 2-4 16, Palumbis 1-1 0-0 2, Stonehouse 0-0 0-0 0, Metoyer 0-2 0-0 0, Flicker 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 26-61 8-16 65.

Halftime-Portland 28, San Diego 27.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)