Recap of WCC Action 11/30
By Josh Horton
With 7 WCC teams in action today, it was a busy day of college basketball. As a conference, the WCC was 3-4 today, and improved to 51-22 overall. Here is a recap of how each WCC team fared in today’s action.
San Diego 73, New Mexico 66
The Toreros played a hard fought game today against the soon-to-be ranked New Mexico Lobos.
San Diego came out swinging and got out to an early lead. With less than 10 minutes left to go in the first quarter, the Toreros were up 22-11. New Mexico battled back and gained its first lead at the end of the half. At the break, the Lobos led 32-30. After exchanging leads a few times, the Lobos pulled away at the end, and the Toreros fell short of pulling the upset.
Johnny Dee was fantastic in this contest. The junior shooting guard scored 25 points off 8 of 17 shooting from the field and 4 of 9 shooting from three-point range. Duda Sanadze chipped in 18 points and Christopher Anderson dished out 12 assists while only turning the ball over 2 times.
Is the Torero’s backcourt the best in the WCC? They are certainly in the conversation.
USD had no answer for Alex Kirk, Kendall Williams, and Cameron Bairstow. The three players scored 28, 21 and 16 points respectively, and Alex Kirk recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds. Kendall Williams was 16 of 16 from the charity stripe, and knocked down some clutch free throws down the stretch to ice the game.
– Keys to the Game Checklist
- Keep up with the Big Dogs – X
- Johnny Buckets – Check
Pacific 73, Cal Poly 71
With 30 seconds left in the game and the Tigers down 1, Tony Gill was fed the ball on the low block and he proceeded with and an and-one dunk to put the Tigers up by 1. Gill made the free-throw, and just like that the Tigers were up by 2. In the Mustangs last possession, Kyle Odister had two chances from beyond the three-point arc, but couldn’t connect on either of them. The “Cardiac Cats” pulled out a win over former Big West foe Cal Poly by a score of 73 to 71.
The Tigers weathered a three-point shooting barrage from the Mustangs in the second half, the ultimate reason why Cal Poly was still in the game at the final buzzer in the first place. Senior forward Chris Eversley recorded a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Tony Gill was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 14 points. Khalil Kelley and Ross Rivera also finished in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively.
– Keys to the Game Checklist
- Speed Racer – Check Minus
- Eversley – Bennett – Nwaba v. Gill – Kelley – Rivera – Harris – Push
Pepperdine 70, Indiana State 73
The Waves played a decent Indiana State team hard until the final buzzer, and were a Nikolas Skouen three-pointer away from sending the game into overtime.
Stacy Davis, Brendan Lane, Malte Kramer, and Jeremy Major all finished in double digits for Pepperdine today. Major led the charge with 15, Kramer recorded his career-high in scoring with 14, Lane chipped in 13 along with his team leading 6 rebounds and Davis scored 12 points in the loss.
Justin Gant was the all-around star for the Sycamores. Gant scored 18 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and distributed 4 assists, all of which were team highs.
The Waves finished in 6th place in the Great Alaska Shootout with a 1-2 record.
– Keys to the Game Checklist
- Limit Odum – Check
- Pound the Boards – Check
BYU 85, Utah State 74
Along with a victory in football today, the BYU men’s basketball team gave BYU fans a double dose of happiness after defeating hated rival Utah State.
Despite Spencer Butterfield dropping 20 points on the Cougars, they were able to win thanks to a 21 point performance from Tyler Haws, an 18 point performance from Matt Carlino and a 15 point performance from freshman Eric Mika. Kyle Collingsworth led the Cougars in assists and rebounds with 8 and 13 respectively.
More insight and analysis will come from our staff writer Andrew Perkins
Santa Clara 66, Rice 67
The Broncos found themselves on the wrong side of a few controversial calls in a devastating loss to Rice.
Down 65-62 with 10 seconds left, Brandon Clark was at the free-throw line with a chance to cut the Broncos deficit to 1. Clark subsequently knocked down both free throws, and the Broncos needed to send the Owls to the line in order to have a chance of possibly sending the game into overtime. Instead, Brandon Clark stole the ball from Owl guard Max Guercy and took the ball to the rim and hit a lay up to put the Broncos up by 1.
Owl guard Keith Washington then dribbled the ball coast-to-coast virtually unguarded and layed the ball up and in to put the Owls back one.
At this point in the game, there was .3 seconds on the clock. Santa Clara tried for a long pass and tip-in play from the baseline, but the ball was tipped and time expired. Bronco head coach Kerry Keating disagreed with the call, and argued with the referees in a merciless manner.
The Broncos were led by Evan Roquemore, who had 17 points, 4 assists, and 2 boards. Senior forward Jerry Brown was one rebound short of a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds.
The Broncos finished the Cable Car Classic with a 0-2 record, which seems odd for a tournament hosted by the school itself.
Saint Mary’s 89, Murray State 64
Gaels forward Brad Waldow had a phenomenal game today and is starting to assert himself as a force to be reckoned with in the WCC. The junior center finished with 18 points off 8 of 9 shooting from the field, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Stephen Holt and James Walker III chipped in 16 points in the victory.
For more Gaels coverage, look for future insight and analysis from our Saint Mary’s staff writings George Robles and Simon Tryzna.
San Francisco 76, Illinois State 90
The Dons capped off the Golden Gate Challenge with a disappointing loss to the Redbirds of Illinois State.
Tim Derksen has stepped up in the starting lineup with the departure of Cody Doolin, and led the Dons in scoring tonight with 18 points. Kruize Pinkins led the rebounding charge with 10 boards, and Matt Glover dished out 6 assists in the loss.
For more extensive San Francisco Dons coverage, look for future article from out USF writer James Stapleton.