Pepperdine Wakes Up in Time to Win

The minds of the Pepperdine players seemed 150 miles away, wondering how West Coast Conference nemesis Gonzaga was faring against San Diego. It was early in the second half, the Waves were sluggish and San Francisco was playing them even.

Coach Jan van Breda Kolff called timeout and jolted his team back to the here and now.

“He challenged us, asked us how we wanted the regular season to end,” forward Kelvin Gibbs said.

The Waves responded with an 11-point run and bolted to a decisive 82-61 victory in a regular-season finale Saturday night before 2,009 at Malibu.

Pepperdine, 20-7 overall and 12-2 in the conference, reached 20 victories in consecutive seasons for the first time since a three-season stretch from 1990-93.

The Waves will open the conference tournament Friday against Portland with momentum, having won 14 of 16. Their only losses since Christmas are to Gonzaga, which had to rally to beat San Diego, 72-69, and clinch the conference title by one game.

A co-championship would have given the Waves another square blue banner to hang in Firestone Fieldhouse, but little else. With an RPI of 81, Pepperdine almost certainly must win the conference tournament to gain an NCAA tournament berth.

Gibbs, one of four Wave seniors playing their last home game, scored a career-high 26 and had eight rebounds.

“I’ll miss it a lot here,” Gibbs said. “I had to hold back tears at the end of the game.”

With fellow Oakland-area product Brian Shaw of the Lakers and Tracy McGrady of the Orlando Magic watching him from court side, guard Brandon Armstrong had 24 points to seal the conference scoring title.

Pepperdine shot 58.1% in the second half. San Francisco (12-17, 5-9) committed 25 turnovers and Pepperdine had nine steals.

“We’re feeling a lot of confidence, our defense is better and we are playing more as a team,” Armstrong said.

“We feel good going into the [conference] tournament.”