Feb. 5, 2005

Gonzaga, San Diego, Saint Mary's, and Loyola Marymount picked up wins Saturday in what proved to be a pivotal weekend of WCC conference men's basketball action. Gonzaga beat Santa Clara at home, 92-75, to keep pace with Saint Mary's, who beat Portland at the buzzer, 73-72. The two are tied for first place with identical 7-2 conference records. In other action, San Diego beat Pepperdine at home in a shootout, 92-88, and Loyola Marymount won a thriller on the road at San Francisco, 50-49. WCC men's basketball action will continue Wednesday night as San Diego hosts San Francisco.

Gonzaga - 92
Santa Clara - 75

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Ronny Turiaf and Adam Morrison each scored 22 points to lead No. 17 Gonzaga over Santa Clara 92-75 Saturday. J.P. Batista added 19 points and grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds for Gonzaga (17-4, 7-2 WCC) for his second double-double in the last three games. The Bulldogs built an early lead as Santa Clara made only one of its first 13 shots.

Santa Clara (12-12, 5-4 WCC), which has wins over North Carolina and Stanford this season, and normally plays Gonzaga tough, shot just 39 percent. Kyle Bailey led the Broncos with 25 points, hitting 10 of 11 free throws.

Gonzaga won its 10th straight against Santa Clara by using its superior height inside to outrebound the Broncos 45-29. Point guard Derek Raivio added 19 points and 10 assists for the Bulldogs for his first career points/assists double-double.

There were 48 fouls called in the game, and Santa Clara made 23 of 28 free throws.

Santa Clara trailed by 10 at halftime, but Bailey's 3-pointer capped an 8-0 run that cut Gonzaga's lead to 50-43 early in the second. Gonzaga replied with seven straight points, four on inside baskets by Batista. Then Morrison hit three 3-pointers in a 2-minute span during a 12-3 Gonzaga run that gave the Bulldogs a 69-48 lead with 12:39 left. The Bulldogs sank 13 of their first 19 shots of the second half to run away with the game, and finished with 50 percent shooting.

After Santa Clara's Mitch Henke made a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the game, the Broncos missed 12 field goal attempts before Travis Niesen sank a short jumper with 11:04 left to pull to 17-7. Santa Clara was just 3-of-21 from the field at one point. But Gonzaga could not pull away, and Doron Perkins scored six unanswered points for the Broncos to cut Gonzaga's lead to 23-17.

Gonzaga led 41-31 at halftime behind 43 percent shooting and Batista's 12 points and 10 rebounds. Santa Clara made just nine of 30 in the half. Both teams were assessed technical fouls in the first half. Perkins, the Broncos' second leading scorer at 15 ppg, picked up a technical early in the second, his fourth foul of the game, and fouled out with 10 points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Technicals also played a role in the teams' first meeting at Santa Clara, when the Broncos had three in a game that Gonzaga won by just four points. Gonzaga is 34-0 at home when ranked and has won 22 in a row at home. Gonzaga has held nine opponents under 40 percent shooting this season, and only Portland State and Washington have shot better than 50 percent.

San Diego - 92
Pepperdine - 88

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The USD Toreros won an old fashioned shootout against the Pepperdine Waves on Saturday by the score of 92-88 in front of 1,832 fans as the JCP. San Diego matched their school record of 14 made three-pointers and their starting frontline of Nick Lewis (28 points), Brandon Gay (24 points) and Brice Vounang (18 points) combined for 70 of the team's 92 points. The Toreros overcame a 9-point deficit with 10:48 left and Brandon Gay's three-pointer with :25 seconds left broke an 88-88 tie. USD improves to 12-10 overall and 4-5 in the WCC; the visiting Waves fall to 13-11/3-6.

"We gutted this game out tonight," said an elated Brad Holland. "We played tough defense at the right time and that was at the end of the game. This was a shootout with our guys burying 14 three-pointers and Pepperdine nailing 12. There was so much fire power from the outside, and that is where we won it at the end with some key threes from Corey (Belser) and B.G. (Brandon Gay)."

Junior forward Nick Lewis paced the Toreros in the first half as he netted 22 points by intermission. His previous career high as a Torero was 20 points. He made his first four three-pointers before finally missing in the last few seconds of the half. USD's biggest lead in the first half was 6 points, while the Waves fought back for a 5-point lead (36-31) at the 4:10 mark. Alex Acker led Pepperdine with 17 points in the 1st half.

In the 2nd half, after USD took a temporary 52-51 lead at the 17:50 mark, Pepperdine would move back ahead and stay in the lead the majority of the time with their 9-point advantage (79-70)the biggest margin with 10:48 to go. A Brandon Gay trey with 2:35 to go knotted the score at 84-all and then Corey Belser answered with his on three-pointer at the 1:45 mark for an 87-84 lead.

A Glen McGowan dunk pulled the Waves to within one at 87-86, but Brice Vounang cashed one of two free throws for a two-point advantage with :54 left. Alex Acker canned a jumper to knot the game at 88-88, then Gay iced the game with his game-winning three-pointer and 1-of-2 free throws. Pepperdine's Acker finished with a game-high 31 points, while Kingsley Costain (18 points) and McGowan (16 points) also reached double figures. Both teams finished the game shooting 50% from the field. San Diego bombed in 14-of-27 three-pointers while the Waves buried 12-of-26. USD won the battle on the boards, 36-32. Point guard Ross DeRogatis played the entire 40 minutes as USD's floor general and finished with 8 points and 8 assists.

Saint Mary's - 73
Portland - 72

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - E.J. Rowland hit an 8-foot jumper with 11 seconds remaining to give St. Marys a 73-72 victory over Portland on Saturday.

That late basket marked St. Marys' first lead since the start of the second half. Rowland then sealed the win when he knocked the ball loose from Portland's Poot Jeter on a shot attempt with three seconds left. After falling behind 37-35 at the half, Portland (14-10 3-6 West Coast Conference) started the second half with seven straight points to take a 42-37 lead.

Portland still had a 59-52 lead with 9:50 left when St. Marys turned its focus to guard Paul Marigney. After hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 14 points in the first half, Marigney was held pointless for the first 11 minutes of the second half.

The Gaels (20-6, 7-2) scored 11 of the final 14 points. Marigney had a key basket with 54 seconds left to tie the game at 71. Moments later, he fouled out on a shot-attempt by Jeter. The Pilots' point guard then hit one of two free-throws to give his team its final lead at 72-71. That set up Rowland's two clutch plays at the end. Rowland finished with 16 points while Marginey had a game-high 24, including six 3-pointers. Jeter led the Pilots with 19, including four 3-pointers.

Loyola Marymount - 50
San Francisco - 49

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) -- Matthew Knight's three-point play with 19.7 seconds remaining capped a late second-half rally by Loyola Marymount that lifted the Lions to a 50-49 win over San Francisco on Saturday.

Knight, who suffered a right ankle sprain after crashing against the scorer's table while diving for a loose ball late in the second half, finished with 12 points and five rebounds to lead Loyola Marymount to just its third win in the last 11 games.

Tyrone Riley scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds to lead San Francisco but missed a lay-in underneath the basket with 1.3 seconds left to play for the Dons, who lost for second consecutive time at home after going 10-0 at War Memorial Gym to start the season. John Cox added 15 points for San Francisco (13-9, 4-5 WCC) but, like Riley, also missed a potential game-winning shot in the final moments when his 3-point attempt fell short.

Loyola Marymount (11-11, 3-6) trailed by as many as 11 early in the second half but slowly crept back into the game when the Dons' offense went cold. San Francisco, which went nearly 7 1/2 minutes without a basket in the first half, had just two field goals in the final 12:30 of the game, shot just 31.5 percent from the floor overall and committed a season-high 22 turnovers.

The Lions' only lead of the game came when Knight -- the team's leading scorer with 16.2 points a game -- scored and was fouled underneath the basket and was fouled by Riley. Knight's ensuing free throw then provided the winning margin.

Riley scored 11 points in the first half to give the Dons an early 10-point lead but neither team shot well overall and San Francisco only led 28-24 at halftime.

Knight injured his ankle with just over two minutes left in the first half and spent halftime running short sprints outside the Lions' locker room before returning to the game. He had only two points in the second half before his game-winning three-point play.