Pepperdine surprises Santa Clara in opener
LAS VEGAS — As he retook the floor after a timeout late in the first half Friday night, Pepperdine’s Trae Berhow sang and danced along with the publicaddress system’s blaring of Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” — a song that features Bruno Mars repeating the lyrics “I’m too hot.”
Santa Clara must have felt like it was at Berhow’s concert all night.
The junior guard lit up the scoreboard with 23 points as 10th-seeded Pepperdine beat the seventh-seeded Broncos 85-69 in the first round of the WCC tournament at the Orleans Arena.
The Waves (6-25), who entered having lost 19 of 21 games and were informed last month that head coach Marty Wilson will not return next season, will advance to the quarterfinals to play No. 2 seed St. Mary’s (27-4) at 9 p.m. Saturday.
“They’re probably as good as anyone in the country at making you pay on ball screens,” Wilson said, already looking ahead to the Gaels. “They have a great point guard. They have a great big man. If you fall asleep or aren’t concentrating, they’re going to pick you apart.”
But on Friday it was Berhow who picked apart a defense. He went 5-for-6 from three-point range, including making his first five attempts. At one point he mimicked the Michael Jordan shrug to media row.
Berhow used the tournament showcase as a platform to rewrite his career records. He needed only 10 shots and 33 minutes to score a career high. His 8-for-10 shooting from the floor and 5-for-6 shooting from three-point range were also career bests.
Maybe feeding off of Berhow’s hot shooting, Pepperdine connected on 70.8 percent from the floor — the third-best percentage in school history and a number that broke Gonzaga’s WCC tournament record from 1989. Kameron Edwards scored 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting and Colbey Ross added 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting.
The Broncos (11-20) got 15 points and five rebounds from Matt Hauser, 12 points and six rebounds from Henry Caruso and 12 points from Josip Vrankic on a night when nothing came easy.
Santa Clara shot 6-of-27 (22.2 percent) from three-point range and managed just five assists to 12 turnovers, and it was pretty much over from the start.
“I saw our team come out of the gates and really get punched in the mouth,” Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek said. “We didn’t execute our game plan defensively right away, and before we could look up, we were in a hole. A big part of the story line is: Pepperdine played a really good game.”
Berhow and Edwards combined for 14 points in the game’s opening eight minutes, leading Pepperdine to a 21-5 lead. Caruso, who played only 14 first-half minutes because of foul trouble, returned to give Santa Clara a spark that cut the Waves’ lead to 31-22, but that was the only first-half minute after Pepperdine’s run that the Broncos’ deficit was less than 10 points.
Santa Clara used a 10-0 run in the second half, capped by an Emmanuel Ndumanya hook shot, to cut Pepperdine’s lead to 51-44 with 12:43 remaining. Sensing a change in momentum, the Waves went back to Berhow, who said he was playing for his coach and rewarded him by scoring four points during a 9-0 run.
“We’ve never talked about that,” Wilson said. “We talk about them playing for the team. It’s not for me.” Loyola Marymount 78, Portland 72: Jason Batemon scored 29 points to lead five Lions with double figures in a first-round win that included only one lead change. Batemon’s three-pointer with 16:22 remaining in the second half put eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount on top and was part of a 13-0 run. Ninthseeded Portland, which got 33 combined points from Marcus Shaver and Josh McSwiggan, trimmed the deficit to 63-61 with just under eight minutes left, but the Lions scored eight of the game’s next nine points. Loyola Marymount advances to the quarterfinals to play top-seeded Gonzaga at 7 p.m. Saturday.