Loyola Marymount survives scare

Fifth-seeded Loyola Marymount made 17 of 22 free throws in the second half and survived a valiant effort from No. 8 Pepperdine to advance in the first round of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on Friday night.
Vernon Teel had 27 points, six rebounds and three assists to lead the Lions, who will play No. 4 San Francisco tomorrow.
Ashley Hamilton knocked down 13 of 15 from the line and had 23 points for Loyola Marymount.
Keion Bell had 25 points, while Taylor Darby finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds for Pepperdine, the lowest-seeded team entering the tournament.
“As an eighth seed and us as a fifth, I hate to use the term, but they were playing with house money,“ said Lions coach Max Good, borrowing a Las Vegas expression no doubt picked up during his days as both an assistant and head coach at UNLV. “But whether they had pressure on them or not, they made shots down the stretch and Keion Bell is a handful.”
Good gave credit to the Waves for their efforts, but said his team’s goal is just to survive each round.
“At this point, you just want to move on,” he said. “There are two columns, a W and an L. We put one in the W column tonight.”
His team survived a scare in the closing seconds. Drew Viney made just 1 of 2 from the line, giving Pepperdine the ball down three points with 15 seconds to play.
The Waves couldn’t get into a good play on offense, however, and never got a shot off.
On two occasions down the stretch, the lead was down to two. Both times, Loyola Marymount got 3-point plays to stretch it back out.
Hamilton had one with 4:24 to play and Teel followed two minutes later. Both plays killed the Waves’ momentum.

Calling him out

Max Good spent several years in Las Vegas as a key member of Bill Bayno’s staff before moving into Bayno’s seat for a time.
He hasn’t forgotten who to look out for among the faces in the Las Vegas media, however.
He started off his press conference by offering a warning to the media and players waiting for the conference to begin.
“Get ready for some crazy (expletive) questions from (Review-Journal writer) Steve Carp.
The veteran scribe made Good look very un-Nostradamus-like, actually spinning a fascinating line of questioning with Loyola Marymount guard Vernon Teel.

Warning to the conference

Loyola Marymount’s Drew Viney said after the game his team could be very dangerous in the tournament as it has a full complement of players coming into the postseason.
“With everybody healthy, we’re a tough team to beat,” he said. “We’ve got all those scoring options out there.”

Moral victory

Pepperdine coach Tom Asbury stopped short of saying he was satisfied with the outcome of the game, but did seem happy with the performance.
“I thought we competed hard and played hard. I thought the first two meetings, they came in and punched us in the face right from the start,” he said. “I think we reversed that tonight and came out early and took it to them a bit. We made it into a winnable game for ourselves.”
The Waves end the season with a mark of 7-23.

Best mascot

Pepperdine was the first men’s team eliminated from the tournament, but its mascot will leave a lasting impression.
It has to be one of the strangest such characters in the nation.
The strange blue creature is supposed to represent a Wave, but that’s a tough look to pull off in a mascot.
Instead, it appears to be more of a cross between a smurf and the old piano-playing moon character from the McDonald’s commercials.
If it was orange, it would look like a big carrot. Very strange.
Hopefully, the Pepperdine women can stay around so this monstrosity has to keep making appearances here throughout the week.

Earlier Action

Loyola Marymount’s women also advanced to the second round by knocking off San Francisco in the second game of the today’s early session.
Alex Cowling had 19 points and 11 assists for the Lions. Renahy Young added 14 points for a Loyola Marymount team that finished with just three assists.
San Francisco, which was led by Rheina Ale’s 13 points, made just 8 of 16 from the free-throw line.
Loyola Marymount will now play No. 3 Pepperdine, while the winner of today’s first game, San Diego, will take on No. 4 Portland in tomorrow’s women’s second round action.

Up Next

Brandon Johnson leads sixth-seeded San Diego into the day’s final first-round game against No. 7 Santa Clara.
The two teams finished in a three-way tie for sixth in the conference with No. 8 Pepperdine.
The winner will play No. 3 Portland tomorrow. If San Diego loses, it will be the first team to have both of its entrants in the WCC tournament eliminated.