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LAS VEGAS, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's basketball team started strong on Friday, but couldn't sustain its momentum against the West Coast Conference's regular-season champs BYU, falling 72-59 in the quarterfinals of the WCC Tournament.

The Waves finish the season 7-24 overall, while BYU moves to 25-5 and will advance to the WCC semifinals. Pepperdine defeated Pacific a day earlier to advance to the quarterfinals, while BYU had a first-round bye.

"You've got to give it to BYU, that's a heck of a team that's very well coached," said Pepperdine Head Coach Ryan Weisenberg. "They played hard from the get-go and they've got two of the best players in the WCC. We tried to slow them down but our best wasn't good enough. I've got to hand it to my kids, they fought on every possession and our effort was 100 percent, so I'm really fired up for that."

The Waves and Cougars were deadlocked at 14-14 after one quarter of play, but BYU used a 12-0 run to start the second quarter and open a 26-14 lead. The Waves went without a point for the first seven minutes of the period.

Pepperdine scored just six points in the quarter and trailed 30-20 at the half. Neither team shot particularly well in the opening two periods, with both hitting at a 31 percent clip. The Waves made 1-of-8 threes, while BYU hit 3-of-11. Free throws were also a large portion of the difference in the first half, with BYU hitting 9-of-10 foul shots and Pepperdine just 3-of-4.

The Waves opened the third quarter hitting four of their first six shots to cut it to a 39-31 game. BYU also opened the second half hot, though, knocking down a pair of three-pointers to open a 43-31 lead midway through the quarter. BYU would push it to a 22-point advantage before the fourth quarter.

The Cougars held a comfortable advantage through most of the final period, but Pepperdine used a late 10-0 run to make it a 14-point game. The Waves got to within 13, but no closer.

Pepperdine shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter and finished shooting 41.7 percent for the game. After making just one three in the first half, the Waves were 2-of-5 from downtown in the second. BYU shot nearly 50 percent in the second half and used 17 second-chance points to build their advantage.

Kelsey Brockway (Rolling Hills, Calif./Palos Verdes HS) finished the game with a season-high 12 points to lead the Waves in her final collegiate game. She also matched Allie Green (Sacramento, Calif./Sacramento HS) with a team-high eight rebounds. Devin Stanback (West Hills, Calif./Chaminade HS) scored 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting and 5-of-5 free throws.

"Kelsey was pretty impressive in the post today," said Weisenberg. "12 and 8 is great. Without Erica Ogwumike on the floor our players really stepped up. Kelsey did a really good job. She had a really great game yesterday also. Allie did a good job and Paige Fecske did a good job out there as well. We moved the ball around and hit the open person. We had great shots in the first half but they just weren't falling."

WCC Player of the Year Lexi Rydalch scored 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for BYU, and Kalani Purcell had 19 points and 11 boards.

Pepperdine graduates three seniors from this year's roster in Brockway, Keitra Wallace (Brea, Calif./Brea Olinda HS) and Krista Pettepier (Ankeny, Iowa/Ankeny HS/Pittsburgh). The Waves will return the rest of its roster which currently includes 11 underclassmen.