WCC Tournament 2nd Round: San Diego out-slugs Pepperdine

Sixth-seeded San Diego outlasted the Pepperdine Waves, 62-59, in the second round of the WCC Tournament on Thursday night in Las Vegas.

At the start of the game, it appeared the USD Toreros would bully Pepperdine in the low post all night. Then Pepperdine used its speed to run out to a double digit lead in the first half. San Diego responded and went on a 13-0 run to take a 32-29 lead into the half.

In the second half, USD kept threatening to pull away but Pepperdine hung in. The Waves pulled within two points with 4 minutes left in the game. But USD pulled ahead again and seemed to be coasting to a victory, up 4 as the clock wound down.

Then, San Diego's Ken Rancifer fouled Lorne Jackson on a three point attempt with two seconds left. In a situation very similar to the game BYU played at Pepperdine, Jackson hit the first two free throws and intentionally missed the third. But the Waves were called for a lane violation on the miss, and after a made USD free throw the Waves missed a desperation three attempt as the buzzer sounded.

The Toreros were led by 16 points from Johnny Dee, while freshman Stacy Davis led Pepperdine with 19 points.

San Diego faces BYU in the WCC Tourney quarterfinals tomorrow night. The Toreros, who looked pretty sloppy in this game, will likely need to play better on Friday than they did tonight if they want to beat the Cougars a second time this season.