WCC roundup: Saint Mary’s beats Pacific, stays in first place

Calvin Hermanson scored 20 points and Jock Landale got the go-ahead score late in the second half as Saint Mary’s held on Saturday night for a 68-65 win over Pacific in Stockton, California.

Landale, who finished with 10 points, put Saint Mary’s back on top 66-65 with a pair of free throws with 1:41 left. Emmett Naar then hit two more from the line with 13 seconds left to cap the 12-2 run and Pacific’s Alec Kobre missed a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer.

Joe Rahon had 13 points, including a key pair of 3-pointers late in the game, for the Gaels (18-2, 9-1 West Coast Conference), who forced 14 turnovers. Saint Mary’s leads Gonzaga by one game in the WCC standings.

Trailing most of the night, Pacific (6-14, 4-6) clawed back with a 15-2 rally that included three straight 3s from Kobre, making it 61-54 with 4:48 left.

Kobre finished with 18 points to lead four Tigers in double figures.

San Diego 77, Loyola Marymount 69: Marcus Harris scored 23 points to help the host Toreros over the Lions.

A close game throughout, it was tied at 68 with 2:30 left. Harris scored on a put-back, and then after LMU missed twice, Duda Sanadze hit a jumper. LMU’s Adom Jacko made 1 of 2 from the line, but Harris responded with another jump shot to make it 72-69.

The Lions missed again next time down, and resorted to fouling. Jito Kok made four straight, then Harris made 1 of 2 to ice it.

Kok finished with 17 points for San Diego (7-14, 2-8). Sanadze came off the bench for 12. The Toreros hit on 10 of 20 beyond the arc led by Harris, who was good on 4 of 8.

Jacko paced Loyola Marymount (10-12, 3-8) with 20 points, and Brandon Brown added 13.

BYU 88, Pepperdine 77: Kyle Collinsworth scored 24 points and distributed 10 assists and the Cougars maintained their perfect record on its home floor with a win over the Waves in Provo, Utah.

BYU is 10-0 at home this season.

Pepperdine won the first matchup with the Cougars last week in Malibu, 71-65.

The Cougars built an eight-point lead in the first half, but the Waves scored the first six points of the second half to cut the BYU lead to two, 53-51. Nick Emery scored at the basket and Chase Fischer hit a jumper off a feed by Collingsworth, who then hit a jumper to give BYU some breathing room, 64-56.

Emery finished with 17 points for BYU (16-7, 7-3).

Kameron Edwards and Lamond Murray Jr. each scored 16 points for Pepperdine (14-8, 7-4).

Santa Clara 90, Portland 84: Jared Brownridge had 38 points including three key baskets in the final 2:07 that helped the visiting Broncos pull away from the Pilots.

After four ties and six lead changes in the final 10 minutes, Brownridge gave the Broncos (8-15, 4-7) the lead for good at 79-77 with 2:07 left. He stretched the lead to four at 1:30 with another driving layup and nailed a catch-and-shoot 3 from the top of the key to make it 84-79 with 46 seconds left.

Alec Wintering twice closed the Portland deficit back to two but turned it over with 15 seconds left when the Pilots (9-15, 3-8) trailed by four.

KJ Feagin, who finished with 15 points, made all six free throws in the final 32 seconds to secure the win. Matt Hubbard scored 10.

Wintering had 31 points and Bryce Pressley scored 17 for Portland.