Saint Mary’s turns up power
The lights go out, but Landale sparkles as Gaels continue to roll
Saint Mary’s Jock Landale had a distinct height advantage against Pepperdine, and the only thing that slowed him was a power outage that caused the lights to go out.
When the lights came back on, Landale almost immediately had an emphatic dunk and the Gaels continued the rout.
Landale had 23 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks to lead No. 20 Saint Mary’s to a 78-49 victory Thursday night.
“At first we were all joking that it gave us the fright of our lives when the lights went out,” Landale said. “We just kept saying to stay warm and not let it affect us. We were on a roll at the time and we just wanted to keep it that way.”
The Gaels (25-3, 15-2 West Coast) continued to roll in winning 10 of their last 11 games. Their only loss in that stretch was to No. 1 Gonzaga.
Lamond Murray Jr. had 17 points for Pepperdine (9-20, 5-12), which lost its third consecutive game.
The power outage caused the lights to go out with 18:41 left in the second half. Pepperdine official Roger Horne said power surges throughout campus caused the 15-minute delay. Players stayed loose by shooting in the dark. Santa Clara69, Pacific68: Matt Hauser had 13 points and 10 assists and made all four free throws in the final 25 seconds to lead the Broncos. KJ Feagin added 22 points and made 6 of 7 from 3-point range and Nate Kratch had 18 points with four 3s for the Broncos (16-14, 10-7 West Coast). Pacific had an 11-5 start to the second half to erase the Broncos’ 32-26 halftime lead before the 13-minute mark. Hauser, Feagin and Kratch had seven 3s over the next seven minutes to push their lead to 58-48. T.J. Wallace had a 3-pointer that cut the gap to one with 10 seconds left and Anthony Townes’ layup at the buzzer didn’t matter. Loyola Marymount 53,
USF 51: Steven Haney scored 18 points and Loyola Marymount held on to defeat San Francisco 53-51 despite making just four of its last eight free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds. The win also keeps the Lions hanging onto the sixth seed into the WCC Tournament with a bye into the quarterfinals. San Francisco falls one spot to fifth. The contest was lowscoring and tense throughout. San Francisco briefly held a 10-point lead after starting the second half 50, but Loyola Marymount scored the next seven to tighten it back up. Gonzaga96, San Diego38: Josh Perkins and Jordan Mathews scored 15 points apiece, and Jonathan Williams had 14 points and 19 rebounds for No. 1 Gonzaga, which overwhelmed San Diego to improve to 29-0 and clinch the WCC title. The 58-point victory margin was the biggest of the season for Gonzaga, which also has won games by 47, 46 and 39 points. UCLA87, Arizona State 75: T.J. Leaf scored 25 points, and No. 5 UCLA survived an upset bid by Arizona State. The Bruins (25-3, 12-3 Pac-12) won their sixth straight game. Aaron Holiday added 17 points and Thomas Welsh had eight points and 11 rebounds in 18 minutes.
Arizona 90, USC 77: Allonzo Trier scored a season-high 25 points, including four 3-pointers, and No. 4 Arizona remained alone atop the Pac-12 standings. Utah 86, Colorado 81: Kyle Kuzma scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half and Utah continued its dominance of Colorado. David Collette added 14 points for the Utes (1810, 9-7 Pac-12), who won their seventh in a row over Colorado (16-13, 6-10) despite foul trouble. Collette and Lorenzo Bonam each had four fouls by midway through the second half and Kuzma played the last 18:27 with three fouls. Derrick White had 31 points and four blocks for the Buffaloes.
Creighton: Basketball player Maurice Watson Jr. is a suspect in an alleged sexual assault in Omaha, police said. According to an incident report, a 19year-old woman said Watson had nonconsensual sexual intercourse with her in the bathroom of a midtown residence about 3 a.m. on Feb. 4. Officer Michael Pecha said no arrest has been made and that an investigation continues.
Women
Santa Clara 61, Pacific 51: Marie Bertholdt and Morgan McGwire each scored 18 points to lead the Broncos (13-14, 8-8 WCC). McGwire, who made 9 of 11 field goals, also had 14 rebounds. Saint Mary’s 84, Pepper
dine 57: The Gaels (17-11, 125 WCC) shot out to a 37-24 advantage at the half and never looked back. USF 89, Loyola Mary
mount 73: Rachel Howard erupted for 29 points and contributed seven rebounds and five assists to pace the Dons. Anna Seilund added 23 points and Michaela Rakova had 19. Kentucky 78, Mississippi
75: Makayla Epps scored the go-ahead basket with 8.7 seconds remaining in overtime and Evelyn Akhator had eight points in the extra session to give No. 22 Kentucky a victory over No. 3 Mississippi State. . Notre Dame 82, Boston
College 45: Lindsay Allen had 18 points and eight assists and No. 5 Notre Dame overpowered Boston College. Erin Boley added 14 points for the Fighting Irish (26-3, 14-1 Atlantic coast Conference). They will host No. 8 Florida State on Sunday in the regular-season finale, with the Irish needing a win to avoid a tie with the Seminoles for the ACC title.