Toreros, Pilots win openers

PORTLAND – Ross DeRogatis had 22 points, including five 3-pointers, and San Diego beat Pepperdine 95-82 Friday night in the first round of West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament.

Gyno Pomare finished with 20 points and seven rebounds for the fifth-seeded Toreros (17-13), who move on to face No. 4 San Francisco today. Nir Cohen added 19 points and Brandon Johnson had 11 rebounds.

Marvin Lea had 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals for the eighth-seeded Waves (8-23). Gregg Barlow, Willie Galick and Chase Griffin each added 12.

DeRogatis, the Toreros’ leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, hit three 3-pointers and had three steals in the first half. San Diego, which shot 58.1 percent for the game, led by as many 16 before halftime, but the Waves put together a 13-2 run going into the break and trailed 48-41.

San Diego went up 62-50 with 14 minutes left after a three-point play from Cohen and a 3-pointer by DeRogatis. The Waves hung around – Lea scored at 8:35 to cut it to 72-65 – but Ray Murdock hit a 3-pointer and De’Jon Jackson muscled in a layup for the Toreros.

Another 3-pointer from Murdock extended the lead to 12. Pomare’s turnaround jumper at 3:55 sent the Waves into a timeout and essentially put away the game.

“Freshman Taishi Ito scored 16 points to lead Portland to its first WCC tournament win since 1996 with a 55-41 victory over Loyola Marymount.

Darren Cooper had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Pilots (9-22), who move on to play third seed Saint Mary’s today.

The seventh-seeded Pilots went 4-10 in the conference regular season, lost 10 of their last 12 games, and entered the tournament tied with Pepperdine for the worst record in the WCC.

Matthew Knight had 15 points and seven rebounds while Adoyah Miller added 12 points for Loyola Marymount (13-18). The sixth-seeded Lions shot just 27.8 percent from the field and made 4 of 23 3-pointers. The Pilots outrebounded LMU 40-31.