Lacking a true center in the key, the Waves drop their first meeting of the season against rival Gonzaga, 92-72, as they try and overcome three key injuries.
By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
It takes two things to make a great college rivalry — shared success and a lack of love.
Pepperdine and Gonzaga have both of these things.
Over the past five years the two schools have dominated West Coast Conference play, finishing either No. 1 or No. 2 in the final WCC standings every year but one — Gonzaga has gone to the “Big Dance” four times, while Pepperdine has gone three.
Last year, the two teams split their regular season meetings, each team winning at home, before the Bulldogs defeated the Waves 96-90 in the WCC Tournament Championship game. That game, etched in the minds of Pepperdine fans forever because of a late game “phantom call” on Pepperdine forward Jimmy Miggins against Gonzaga star Dan Dickau, set the stage for Sunday’s contest in Spokane.
And it was the Bulldogs, at home in the Kennel, that would deliver the first blow.
Gonzaga (11-5, 2-0) dominated all facets of the game en route to a 92-72 victory over the Waves (9-6, 1-1) Sunday afternoon, a game that was televised live by FOX Sports West. After getting behind by as much as 26 points in the first half, the Waves entered the locker room down 22 and were never able to make up the ground.
“We just started out a little slow, and couldn’t get it going in the first half,” senior forward Boomer Brazzle said. “They just ended up running away with it.”
Just as they have throughout the first half of the season, injuries played a major factor. Missing the help of three key starters, center Will Kimble (heart condition), forward Glen McGowan (blood clot in knee) and point guard Devin Montgomery (broken thumb), the Waves were forced to play without a true center.
Play after play, the Bulldogs would enter the ball into their dominating front line, which used its size and strength to make baskets look easy. In the end, the group made up of junior forward Cory Violette, junior center Richard Fox and sophomore forward Ronnie Turiaf finished with 41 of Gonzaga’s 92 points, and led the way to a sizeable 42-29 rebounding margin.
Leading scorers for Pepperdine were seniors Miggins and Brazzle, who finished the one-sided game with 18 and 14 points respectively.
Senior guard Mike Westphal talked about playing Gonzaga in the post-Dan Dickau era.
“They are more inside orientated,” Westphal said. “Last year when they needed a bucket they would give it to Dickau, this year they would just pound it inside, pound it inside, and we weren’t able to stop them. It’s real frustrating, but I know the guys down there are doing the best they can.”
Forced to sag inside to help out their team in the key, Pepperdine’s perimeter defenders began to leave open the outside shot, and Gonzaga was quick to make them pay, hitting nine three pointers in the contest, including three from rising WCC star Blake Stepp.
Sophomore guard Terrence Johnson, who finished with 10 points and five rebounds, talked about how the injuries have altered the play of the Waves.
“Defensively, without Will and Glen, that makes us small down low, and that’s causing us to have to play a lot more zone because we are undersized, especially in the paint,” Johnson said. “Offensively, right now we’re not our normal selves, playing that up tempo style of ball because we don’t have Devin. Devin was the one who got the offense going, got the ball up the floor… but we are getting back into that groove because Alex (Acker) is getting more comfortable at the point.”
While Kimble’s condition is career-ending and McGowan’s has him red-shirted for the season, Montgomery is expected back on the floor within the month. In his absence, red-shirt freshman Acker has stepped up his game, scoring 12.5 per game and pulling down five rebounds from the one-guard position.
Despite the difficult loss in Spokane, the Waves are doing well, considering what they have faced in just two months of playing basketball. Before beating Portland 82-68 on Friday to open it’s conference schedule, the team went 8-5, capturing both the Stanford and Lobo Invitationals in a matter of two weeks, and stringing together six consecutive road wins.
“Given the problems we’ve had and given our tough schedule, to be 9-6 is something,” Head Coach Paul Westphal said.
One major positive for the Waves has been their balanced scoring attack, which allows for a new finisher to step up every night. Six different players have lead the Waves in scoring this season, and four of them — Miggins, Johnson, Brazzle and Acker — are averaging in double figures.
According to Coach Westphal, the three key injuries have affected the team from top to bottom.
“It’s an incredible domino affect. Every time we’ve lost a player, we’ve had to make adjustment,” Westphal said. “Then players have to play out of position, so we make another adjustment and the dominos starting falling all over again.
“Before the season started we had the players to play various styles pretty effectively, now we can pretty much play one style — a perimeter slashing game. We don’t have the post-up game, and we don’t have the one guy who can dribble through and create … but we’re trying to focus on what we do have, not what we don’t have.”
Westphal said that despite the early season set backs his team still has its sights set on the conference championship.
This weekend the Waves play their first home game in nearly a month against conference foes Santa Clara and San Diego. Last year, the Toreros of USD played two tough games with the Waves, and with two-big men on the roster, it expects to be another challenge this year.
January 16, 2003