LAS VEGAS - Even Saint Mary’s was impressed by what Moe Odum and the Pepperdine basketball team had done over three nights at the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship.
That doesn’t mean the top-seeded and 19th-ranked Gaels were about to let the Waves add another chapter to their captivating postseason story.
Saint Mary’s (28-4) put an end to Pepperdine’s attempt to become Cinderella, using their staples — defense and rebounding — to restore order at Orleans Arena and post a 74-59 victory that wasn’t as close as that. The Gaels led by 28 points with 7 and a half minutes left.
None of it diminished what Pepperdine (13-22) achieved, beating Portland, Oregon State and Santa Clara on consecutive days to become the first No. 9 seed since LMU in 2013 to advance to the WCC event’s semifinal round.
“We’ve obviously been watching,” said Gaels point guard Augustas Marciulionis, the two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year. “Their situation was crazy, with those (Los Angeles) fires. It’s impressive how they played these last three days. We were respecting them and took this very seriously.”
Gaels' coach Randy Bennett, whose team will play in the championship game on Tuesday for the fourth straight season and the sixth time in seven years, was confident his veteran team would bring the correct mindset to Monday night.
“The biggest thing about this game is to get your heads right. These Cinderella stories are real,” he said. “We knew it could be like that. Eventually what we could do to nullify that was to defend and rebound. We weren’t going to panic.”
The Gaels bludgeoned the Waves on the boards, outrebounding them 45 to 22. They had as many offensive rebounds (15) as Pepperdine’s total of defensive rebounds. And they established a 17-5 advantage on second-chance points.
“All we talked about was rebound, rebound, rebound,” Pepperdine first-year coach Ed Schilling said. “All they did was rebound, rebound, rebound. They are just elite rebounders. We’re big, pretty long, but they just got every ball. We did everything we could to try to take that away and we couldn’t.”
The Gaels’ big men went at Pepperdine in waves, so to speak. Forward Paulius Murauskas had 15 points and 10 rebounds, forward Luke Barrett posted 13 points and eight rebounds and center Mitchell Saxen logged nine points and eight rebounds. Even Marciulionis had seven boards — more than any Pepperdine player could gather.
The Waves led 18-13 early, thanks to nine points from Odum, the point guard from Bronx, N.Y., who steered his team’s frenetic offense the first three nights.
Odum wound up with 19 points and three assists, bringing his four-game total to 86 points and a tournament-record 38 assists. Forward Stefan Todorovic, who scored 72 points the first three outings, finished with 10 points on 3-for-14 shooting.
Marciulionis had the primary defensive assignment on Odum and Barrett took Todorovic. Bennett said both did good work.
But the Waves were exhausted, Schilling acknowledged. “Stef told me, `I feel so bad. I had nothing in the tank when the game started.’ “
Odum, listed at 6-foot-1, weighs little more than 150 pounds, according to Schilling. “There are a couple guys on Saint Mary’s who have one leg that weighs that,” Schilling said.
“I’m sure they were worn out a little bit,” Bennett said. “It was pretty cool to see them do what they did. Everybody but the guys wearing red and blue up in the stands are rooting for them.”
Bennett admitted the coaching staff hadn’t spent a lot of time in recent days preparing to face Pepperdine. The Gaels expected to see Santa Clara.
Saint Mary’s have beaten the Waves eight times in a row and most of the games weren’t close. The margins in two games this season were 24 and 30 points.
Schilling understood the challenge his team faced. “Everything in perfect order, it’s going to be really really hard,” he said. “I could see it in their eyes: They wanted to do it, they couldn’t do it.”
UP NEXT: Virtually assured of a spot in the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight season — unprecedented in program history — the Gaels will try to defend their WCC title on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
On the heels of a 17-1 run to the WCC’s regular-season title, the Gaels are pursuing their sixth conference tournament crown, their third in the past seven seasons. They have never won the event in consecutive seasons.
Barrett said the Gaels don’t really care who they will face on Tuesday evening. “They’re both great teams,” he said. “We lost a game to USF and it’s always tough against Gonzaga. It’s up to us.”
SETTING A FOUNDATION: Schilling was beaming with pride over his team’s performance in Las Vegas and he believes what they did will have long-term benefits.
“We’re on the rise,” he said. “These guys laid a rock-solid foundation that we can build something great on.”
Todorovic, a senior from Serbia, has completed his eligibility. A transfer from San Francisco where he rarely played, he brought an 18.5 scoring average into Monday’s game.
Odum arrived in Malibu from Pacific, and he has one more year to play. His 264 assists this season set a program record. “As much as anything, his energy, his enthusiasm and his passion was infectious,” Schilling said, “not only to our team but to people who watched.”
The Gaels’ Bennett said both deserved spots on the All-WCC team, something neither achieved.
Asked if Vegas was fun this week, Odum said, “Absolutely. I don’t take this for granted.”
“Extremely fun,” Todorovic added.