Back with my day-after Pepperdine post. The Zags held off the Waves 69-66 to remain a half-game up (tied in the loss column) with Saint Mary’s atop the WCC standings. Here’s my game story.

Read on for more.

--Domantas Sabonis had a big weekend with 21 points and 11 rebounds against Loyola Marymount and 20 and 11 vs. the Waves.

“Those (Pepperdine) guys are really physical and big and they go to the boards hard,” senior guard Kyle Dranginis said. “Domas kind of saved us. He was going up over two guys. He was just beastin’.”

In two games, Sabonis made 13 of 19 FGs and 15 of 16 FTs. He had three assists, two blocks and one turnover in 65 minutes. He put several of Pepperdine’s post players in foul trouble, leaving the Waves’ coaching staff howling in protest after several calls.

“Domas was obviously a man tonight, especially on the glass,” coach Mark Few said. “He really did a job on the glass because they were really coming at us and they really hurt us on the boards. He had a lot of those (rebounds) in traffic.”

Roughly 20 NBA scouts attended Thursday’s game and 15 or so were on hand Saturday night versus Pepperdine.

--The Zags won this game primarily at the defensive end and at the free-throw line. The Waves heated up in the second half to finish at 43.6 percent overall. Of their 66 points, 29 came on points off turnovers and second-chance points.

Stacy Davis, 3 of 25 on 3-pointers in conference play entering the game, made 5 of 6. His teammates were 2 of 11 from distance. Lamond Murray Jr. scored 15 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Outside of those two, the six other Waves to see playing time combined for only nine field goals.

“We gave up some 3s to Stacy; he had a great night,” point guard Josh Perkins said, “but as a team we played well defensively.”

Gonzaga let a sizable lead slip away last year at Firestone Fieldhouse in large part because of errant free-throw shooting. The Zags were 14 of 34 in a narrow 78-76 win.

GU drained 21 of 23 Saturday night, including their last nine in the final 6-plus minutes.

“Domas was bigtime (12 of 12),” said Dranginis, who buried two FTs with 18.9 seconds left. “That was the difference for us. They missed a few; we made ours.”

--Both teams had to deal with foul trouble. Eric McClellan was called for fouls two seconds apart, his third and fourth, with more than 17 minutes remaining. Perkins picked up his third with 13:35 left but stayed in the game and made some key plays in crunch time.

Dranginis left the game after his fourth foul with 11:46 left. He returned near the 5-minute mark.

Davis went on the bench for almost eight minutes in the second half after picking up his fourth foul. Forward Jett Raines never got untracked and fouled out with 2:27 remaining (Kyle Wiltjer made both FTs to put GU up 65-57).

“Neither team is very deep,” Few said. “We’re both slugging it out with 7, 8 guys. Ryan (Edwards) came in and gave us good minutes in the first half and Silas (Melson) was good.”

--The Zags called timeout after Dranginis made his clutch free throws to set their defensive strategy.

“We decided to go zone on their last possession,” Few said. “I think the guys really believed in it. We talked about it in the timeout and the guys wanted to do it. It was perfect. We directed it to a non-shooter (Kameron) Edwards (1 of 9 on 3s this season, 0 of 5 in WCC play).”

STATS OF NOTE

--Gonzaga was outrebounded for just the third time this season. Pepperdine won the boards, 35-27.

--GU led the LMU game for 35 minutes, 27 seconds. The Zags led the Pepperdine game for 35:35.

--Led by Melson’s nine points, Gonzaga’s bench outscored Waves’ reserves 11-4.

--The Zags are shooting 79 percent from the FT line in WCC games.

QUOTEBOOK

Perkins: “That was a crazy game.”

Dranginis on GU trying to find offensive rhythm: “It was a little hard to get into a flow, they did a good job defending us and pushing us out of sets. We did a good job of not forcing anything. We had a couple of bad turnovers but we were able to not give up any more, kind of slow it down and be more assertive with the ball.”

Perkins on Dranginis’ two late FTs: “It was loud in there but I knew KD (Dranginis) was going to make them. We were worried about what defense we were in and the matchups.”

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