No. 19 Gonzaga hangs on to beat upset-minded Pepperdine 89-82

MALIBU, Calif. – With a handful of visits left to various gyms in the West Coast Conference, Gonzaga can only expect the target on its back to grow over the next 24 months, as longtime league rivals realize chances to finally topple the Bulldogs are probably numbered.

Pepperdine, a program that’s been as starved as any in the WCC, set itself up with as good a chance as any the Waves have had during a 48-game losing streak to Gonzaga.

The Waves did most of the hard work in the second half, overcoming a 20-point deficit behind scoring production from two unlikely suspects, but Gonzaga still held on for a nervy 89-82 win during Monday’s West Coast Conference opener at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Pepperdine trimmed the deficit to four points on a transition layup from Jaxon Olvera with 2 minutes, 12 seconds remaining, but the Waves couldn’t get any closer than that, even after consecutive 2-point misses from Gonzaga’s Khalif Battle and Ryan Nembhard.

Battle made his next shot on a driving layup with less than a minute remaining and the transfer guard iced the game with four free throws inside the final 33 seconds.

Two days after being ejected with a Flagrant 2 foul from a three-point loss to UCLA, Battle responded with 21 points on 7 of 11 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free throw line.

Gonzaga’s bigs, Graham Ike and Braden Huff, combined to score 35 points on 16 of 20 from the field, with 17 of Huff’s 19 points coming in the first half and 12 of Ike’s 16 coming in the second.

Pepperdine’s Olvera was averaging 6.4 points per game before the freshman guard torched Gonzaga for 27 points, 12 more than his career-high. Point guard Moe Odum, who combined to score 20 points in three previous matchups against Gonzaga while playing at Pacific, set a new career-high with 24 points – all of them in the second half – on Monday.