Hill’s Hot Hand Can’t Save Waves

Pepperdine returned Saturday to the scene of its only road victory, but with the exception of center Bryan Hill, the Waves left their games at home.

Despite a career-best 39 points by Hill, Pepperdine never recovered from a poor start and lost to St. Mary’s, 85-69, in the first round of the West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament at Loyola Marymount.

Hill, a 6-foot-8 junior, made 15 of 24 shots on his way to the most points scored by a Wave since 1988 and the second-highest total in the tournament’s 11-year history. But there was little support from his teammates, who shot a collective 10 of 36.

“I can’t fault my teammates,” said Hill, who tied a tournament record for field goals in a game. “I had a hot hand, and that kind of magnified the fact that none of my teammates could get it going. But I can’t complain. The better team won.”

St. Mary’s (21-7), the WCC co-champion with Santa Clara, held the Waves to 22.2% shooting in the first half to build a 39-21 lead and maintained at least an 11-point margin in the second half. The Gaels bring a seven-game winning streak into today’s semifinal against Loyola Marymount at 5:30 p.m.

The usual suspects--poor shooting, sloppy ballhandling and lack of depth--sent Pepperdine (6-21) to its fourth consecutive loss.

The Waves went more than 11 minutes without a basket in the first half, finished with 23 turnovers and ended the game with only five available scholarship players after Billy Jones was sidelined in the first half with a back injury and Marc McDowell and Khary Hervey fouled out in the second half.

Guard Marques Johnson also was missing, though he played 33 minutes. The Waves’ second-leading scorer was shut out until he hit a basket with 6:24 left and his team trailing by 21. He finished with eight points, making three of 11 shots.

It was a far cry from Pepperdine’s 69-67 double-overtime loss to St. Mary’s in Malibu two weeks ago, when Johnson scored 23 points.

This time, first-year Coach Lorenzo Romar frustratingly watched the Waves easily fall to 0-11 in Saturday games and 1-14 away from home, its only victory coming Jan. 15 at Loyola.

“We allowed [St. Mary’s] to get some transition baskets early,” Romar said. “From that point on, we were trying to claw back.”

A three-point basket by McDowell pulled the Waves to within 53-42 with 13:47 left, but St. Mary’s countered with a 14-2 run to rebuild its lead to 67-44 with eight minutes to play.

Brad Millard, the Gaels’ 7-3, 345-pound center, had 17 points and eight rebounds and 5-10 guard David Sivulich had 15 points and a tournament-record seven steals.