By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
“I wish we could have won, but we did a lot of amazing things this season,” senior Keani Christianson said.
Sunday, in the first round of the NCAA tournament, No. 6 ranked Louisiana Tech stopped the Pepperdine women’s basketball team from advancing in post-season play.
The Techsters took the strong 94-60 win in front of their home crowd in Ruston, La.
Pepperdine finished its season 22-8.
This was their sixth consecutive season winning more than 20 games and fifth straight post-season tournament appearance.
“Resilient,” senior guard Tamara McDonald said. “That is the only way to describe this team. If we had one more game to play I know we’d come out and win it. Unfortunately that’s not the way things work.”
The Lady Techsters brought their impressive winning streak to 28 for the season thus far. They have never lost a game at the Thomas Assembly Center during NCAA tournament play.
McDonald, West Coast Conference Player of the Year, scored a game-high 16 points and took eight rebounds to conclude her career at Pepperdine.
“Tamara came a long way for us,” Assistant Coach Derrek Wynn said. “She played with the heart of a player who will never give up. She’s a real competitor.”
Sophomore guard Shanell Law contributed to the Waves’ fight with 11 points and six boards.
Sophomore forward Erica Smith led the Techsters with a career-high 28 points, 20 in the first half.
“We chose to dare her to beat us with the outside shot,” Wynn said. “She did.”
Louisiana Tech grabbed the advantage early on in the first five minutes of play with an 11-2 lead over the Waves.
“We didn’t come out strong in the first half,” sophomore guard Kelli Spencer said. “We dug ourselves into a hole that we couldn’t get out of.”
With 2:30 left in the first half, Louisiana Tech widened its lead as they went on a uncontested 13-point run to take the advantage to 36-16, giving them momentum for the last 20 minutes of play.
“We were nervous,” sophomore forward Jennifer Lacy said. “We played not to lose rather than to win.”
Pepperdine’s post-season statistics don’t compare to its regular season statistics.
The Waves struggled with shooting throughout the game, managing to connect on only 26.8 percent of their shots.
Louisiana Tech made 49.2 percent of their field-goal attempts.
“Their guards were hitting everything from the outside,” Christianson said. “We had focused on stopping their post game because that is what has made them a strong team all season. We didn’t expect them to be so strong on the outside.”
Coaches and players agreed that Louisiana’s unstoppable shooting game was a huge factor in the match-up.
“Our plan backfired on us,” Assistant Coach Jody Wynn said. “They had one of their best shooting nights of the year. They were fired up and wanted to prove to the NCAA that they deserved a higher seed than No. 5. They decided to take it out on their opponents … us.”
As they did all season, Pepperdine dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Lady Techsters 50-43.
However, committing 20 turnovers proved to be deadly and gave Louisiana Tech the offensive advantage.
Despite the loss, the Waves close the season with many accomplishments under their belt.
“We were one game short of our ultimate goal,” Jody Wynn said. “We achieved every other goal. Looking back at the beginning of the season, if someone had said we’d lose Shandrika Lee and be without Shannon Mayberry most people would have written us off. We rose to the challenge which is the mark of a true team. These girls had a will that would never let up.”
Pepperdine lost their leading scorer, junior guard Lee, to an anterior cruciate injury in December.
Many other teammates had to sit out multiple games due to injury as well.
By the end of the season, the Waves were playing with a roster of only nine healthy players, but they still grabbed the WCC regular-season championship as well as the WCC tournament championship.
The Waves graduate seniors Damaris Hinojosa, Anna Lembke, McDonald and Christianson.
“I’m so disappointed it’s all over,” Lacy said. “We’re all going to miss our seniors so much. This has been an awesome season. It’s great to be part of such a team, such a great group of girls.”
March 27, 2003