Zags too strong inside for Waves
Pepperdine brought its run-and-gun road show – minus the run part – into the McCarthey Athletic Center Monday night hoping to end the nation’s longest home-court winning streak.
The shorthanded Waves, playing with only seven scholarship players in their first season under coach Vance Walberg, predictably threw up an obscene number of 3-pointers in a desperate effort to knock off West Coast Conference bully Gonzaga.
But many of them were uncharacteristically launched deep into the shot clock, and precious few of them fell, which helped the Bulldogs sneak away with a 69-52 win that raised their home winning streak to 47 games and kept their record in the McCarthey Center unblemished at 35-0.
Derrick Raivio scored 19 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for the Zags (11-6 overall, 2-0 WCC), who also got 18 from Josh Heytvelt, 17 from Sean Mallon, and 10 from David Pendergraft.
“I thought we did a great job tonight,” GU coach Mark Few said. “That’s a very frustrating team to play. Watching all the tapes of them, nobody has really blown them out – not that this was a blowout, but we held them at arms-length, I thought.”
“I was real proud of our approach.”
Walberg liked his team’s effort, as well, but was not particularly enamored with the Waves’ 5-of-27 shooting on 3-pointers.
“We’re not the best,” he admitted, “but we work hard. And for us to have any chance, we have to shoot it half decent. But you have to give (the Bulldogs) credit. They’re a good team and they covered things very well.”
The Zags, after building a 38-27 lead at intermission, stretched it to 48-31 a little over six minutes into the second half, but then let the Waves loose for eight unanswered points. That made things interesting again, but not for long – thanks to Raivio, who reeled off 10 straight points for GU.
The senior guard’s scoring surge, which included a pair of free throws that ran his school-record streak to 44 in a row, put the Bulldogs up 57-43 and Pepperdine never challenged again.
It was a far cry from the first half, when he had three of his 3-point attempts rattle around inside the rim and bounce out.
“I knew it was going to come,” said Raivio, who also contributed seven rebounds and five assists. “Sean (Mallon) and I were both cursed that first half, but I knew in the second it was my time to step up and put the dagger in, and I felt I did that.”
Heytvelt broke out of his recent funk by coming off the bench for the second game in a row to knock down 7 of 11 field-goal tries, including a 3-pointer, and pull down seven rebounds.
Mallon and point guard Jeremy Pargo each had 10 rebounds for the Zags, who beat Pepperdine (4-14, 0-2) badly on the boards, 49-29.
Gonzaga held the high-scoring Waves to just 27 first-half points and took control of the game midway through the opening period with a 19-2 run that spanned almost 8 1/2 minutes.
Heytvelt fueled the run with eight points and a couple of blocked shots, but GU’s other bigs got involved, too. Pendergraft scored six during the surge and Mallon added a bucket on a nice low-post feed from Raivio, whose 3 from the left wing accounted for the Zags’ only perimeter points during the run.
Chase Griffin scored a team-high 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Pepperdine, which also got 15 point from Marvin Lea. But the Waves had no answer for the Zags’ inside muscle.
“When you’ve only got seven scholarship players, it’s tough,” Walberg said. “We like our guys to shoot better, rebound better, do this better and do that better. But they’re trying.”
Around the WCC
Darren Cooper scored a career-high 28 points as Portland defeated Loyola Marymount 81-65 at Portland.
Taishi Ito added 16 points for the Pilots (6-12, 2-0 West Coast Conference). Matthew Knight led the Lions (8-10, 0-2) with 24.