Saint Mary’s powers into WCC final

The broom never left Pepperdine’s closet.

After beating Saint Mary’s twice in the regular season, the Waves were looking to sweep the Gaels on Monday and give themselves a chance to win the West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament.

But that wasn’t happening. Not with a day to prepare and a motivated team ready to go for Gaels coach Randy Bennett.

Bennett turned his guys loose and blew out Pepperdine 81-66 in the WCC semifinals in front of an announced crowd of 8,362 at the Orleans Arena. With the win, the top-seeded Gaels (27-4) advanced to today’s 6 p.m. championship game against No. 2 Gonzaga, which defeated No. 3 Brigham Young 88-84.

The winner gets the WCC’s automatic bid to next week’s NCAA Tournament.

“We were very effcient with the ball, and we took good shots,” Bennett said.

The Gaels, who had dropped the two games to Pepperdine by a total of nine points, made sure there wasn’t any doubt who the better team was when it mattered most. From the opening tip, Saint Mary’s, a 7½-point favorite, made a statement, attacking the basket offensively while limiting Pepperdine to a single look at the other end and bursting out to a 15-4 lead.

Late in the first half, it was 44-22 and the Waves were going to need a miracle.

But Joe Rahon and the Gaels saw to it that there would be no miracles performed. The junior guard from San Diego, a Boston College transfer, made sure his guys kept to the task at hand, leading the way with 18 points, and Pepperdine had to accept its fate. Saint Mary’s led 60-38 with just under 12 minutes remaining, and the best the Waves could do was cut the lead to 10 (64-54) with 5:28 left.

“I just took what they gave me,” Rahon said. “Whoever gets the looks gets the shots, and I think that’s what makes us dangerous.”

Pepperdine coach Marty Wilson said when a team is rolling like Saint Mary’s was, there isn’t much you can do about it.

“The disappointing thing is we didn’t have the mindset we needed in the first half,” Wilson said after his team dropped to 18-13. “They were just more prepared and executed better than we did.”

■ Gonzaga 88, Brigham Young 84 — Kyle Wiltjer scored 29 points, and the Bulldogs (25-7) outlasted the Cougars (23-10) in a tough, physical battle to earn their place in the title game.

Gonzaga used a 12-2 run to take a 59-52 lead after a BYU 3-pointer opened the second-half scoring and gave the Cougars a 50-47 lead. The Cougars, who were led by Nick Emery with 27 points, got as close as 71-70 with 5:28 remaining before the Bulldogs opened it back up to lead 85-79 with 36 seconds to go.

Women’s semifinals

■ Brigham Young 87, Santa Clara 67 — Lexi Rydalch scored 25 points, and the top-seeded Cougars earned their spot in today’s title game at 1 p.m. The No. 4 Broncos trailed 32-27 at halftime and were within range down 53-47 after three quarters. But BYU (26-5) opened it up in the final 10 minutes, outscoring Santa Clara 34-20 as the Broncos fell to 23-8.

■ San Francisco 67, Saint Mary’s 65 — Zhane Dikes’ 3-pointer with 39 seconds left put the Dons (20-11) ahead, and sixth-seeded USF advanced to the championship game. Dikes also came up with a key steal with 10 seconds remaining after teammate Anna Seilund deflected the inbounds pass with USF clinging to a 64-63 lead over the No. 2 Gaels.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj