JANE LEE
Assistant Sports Editor
They started the season 1-6, lost 11 of their first 14 games and eventually got through the regular season finishing with a losing record of 11-16. It was a season most would want to quickly forget, but for this team, it became one they’ll never forget.
An 11-16 team one day. Conference champions the next. That’s what March can do to a college basketball team, and that’s exactly what it did to the Pepperdine women’s basketball team.
The Waves earned the West Coast Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by recording three victories in four days at the conference tournament in Spokane, Wash., capped by a 71-67 decision over top-seeded Santa Clara in the championship game.
“Going into the tournament my teammates and I knew that the tournament was anyone’s to win,” junior guard Lauren Wenski said. “We had been playing well prior to heading up to Spokane so we knew that if we kept up this play we could be crowned champions.”
The late turnaround began after sliding to a 3-11 mark in January. The Waves, who finished the regular season fourth in the conference, won eight of their past 10 games, including the WCC title.
Now, Pepperdine is making its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament — all since the 2000 season — and is the fourth team in the 25-year history to reach the Big Dance with a losing record.
As the No.-15 seed in the San Antonio region of the tournament, the Waves will face No.-2 seeded Oklahoma on Saturday in Denver, Colo.
“The others didn’t see us coming,” Head Coach Julie Rousseau said. “During the whole season I had felt we were getting better, and even though we weren’t at full strength, I thought winning the games during the tournament was doable.
“We just had to play well, and as the confidence kept growing we didn’t want to lose sight of the prize.”
The second-year coach gave her team a challenge before the start of every game.
“I told them to not walk off the court saying ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda,’ ” she said. “They knew they had it in them all along, and we just had to seize the moment.”
The Waves had plenty of moments to seize in the tournament, with their first one coming when sophomore guard Daphanie Kennedy scored a game-high 17 points and junior forward Jasmane Clarendon added 15 to lead Pepperdine to a 70-58 victory over fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s in the opening round game.
The win, which advanced them to the semi-finals against rival Loyola Marymount, marked the fifth year in a row that the Waves had won a first-round WCC Tournament game.
Kennedy would again score game-high points in the following game, this time 18, to lead a group of four Pepperdine players in double figures to help the Waves snag a 59-58 victory over the No.-2 seed Lions.
The Waves survived a late scare from Loyola Marymount, which rallied from a five-point deficit with 1:39 remaining to twice cut the margin to a point. The game saw seven lead changes and eight ties, but Pepperdine would come out winners to advance to the championship game against Santa Clara.
“We believed we could take the title back during our regular conference games,” Wenski said. “We had played all of the teams very close and knew that if we kept working hard, we would come out on top when it truly mattered.”
Wenski was right as she and her teammates watched their rocky season turn into a championship campaign the following day with an upset win over the Broncos.
With the score tied at 67, Kennedy dashed down the middle for a lay-up with nine seconds remaining to put Pepperdine ahead. She then hit two free throws to clinch the win, the first this season for the Waves over Santa Clara.
“I think I speak for myself and the rest of my teammates when I say that, as the buzzer sounded, we were all thinking how all the hard work, time and preparation we put into the season was finally paying off,” Wenski said.
The aggressive play of Kennedy throughout the tournament earned her MVP honors. In the final game, she finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for Pepperdine. Clarendon added 15 points, while freshman guard Jessica Ross chipped in with 14 for the Waves.
“From the beginning of the season our coaches continually stressed upon us that we were capable of anything if we just put our minds to it,” Wenski said. “I think we believed in our coaches’ words, as well as in each other, that we could accomplish a lot regardless of how things started off.”
The Waves’ rough start was somewhat expected, so the fact that they’re headed to the NCAA Tournament may have some fans believing that Pepperdine’s a year too early. This notion is understandable considering the 12-player roster includes nine underclassmen and very little size. Kelsey Ball, the WCC Defensive Player of the Year, is the lone senior as well as the tallest player in the lineup at 6-1.
All odds are against the Waves going into Saturday’s game, which will be aired live on ESPN2 with a scheduled tip-off start at 10 a.m. PST. Being the underdog, however, is what Rousseau said she believes her team is motivated by.
“We’re not expected to do much, so the pressure’s not on us,” she said. “That allows us to just go in and play while all the attention is on the other team.”
The contest will mark the fourth meeting and first since the 2003-04 season for Pepperdine and Oklahoma. All three of the previous meetings have been in Malibu with the Sooners holding a 2-1 advantage in the series.
“We’re putting all our eggs in one basket,” Rousseau said. “You try to come in with a game plan and make adjustments accordingly, but we’re just going to try to stay focused and play our very best for one game.
“We have two goals. One is to win and the other is to gain experience, so hopefully we can do both.”
Even if the first goal isn’t met, Rousseau and her team are just proud to represent Pepperdine at such a high level of play.
“The best thing about being part of the NCAA Tournament is knowing that you are among the top 64 teams in the nation,” Wenski said.
Rousseau said that being one of those 64 teams is “an enormous honor and opportunity.”
“Hopefully it will just light the fire for future years,” she said.
But the Waves don’t want to find themselves thinking of the future like many of their fans did when their season looked as good as gone. They’re thinking about the present, and it’s March, so anything can happen.
03-16-2006