Pepperdine University
Saint Mary's
Pepperdine Falls to Veteran Saint Mary's Squad
2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
MORAGA, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's basketball team dropped a West Coast Conference contest on the road to second-place Saint Mary's on Thursday night, falling 84-57 in its second-to-last regular season contest.
A veteran squad honoring five seniors on senior day and battling for the No. 2 seed in the WCC Tournament proved too much for a Pepperdine team boasting just two upperclassmen to handle. The Waves fall to 7-21 overall and 5-12 in WCC play, while the Gaels move to 17-11, 12-5 WCC.
Barbara Sitanggan and Allie Green provided two bright spots for the Waves, with Green scoring a game-high 17 points and Sitanggan adding 13 points, six rebounds and four steals.
In what was a low scoring affair for most of the first half, the Waves closed a double-digit gap to three points with a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter. Green had five of the seven points, capping the run with a three.
Saint Mary's responded by outscoring the Waves the rest of the way to take a 37-24 lead into the break. A 15-4 offensive rebounding edge for the home team made up most of the difference in the first half.
That trend would continue as the Gaels pulled away in the third period, taking a 67-40 lead into the fourth quarter. Pepperdine never found the run it needed.
The Waves shot 39.3% for the game, while Saint Mary's hit 44.1% of its field goals. The Gaels shot 51% in the second half. The Waves won the turnover battle and turned 16 giveaways into 15 points. The Gaels won the rebounding battle and scored 25 second chance points.
Pepperdine heads to San Francisco on Saturday to close out regular-season play. Tip-off for that contest will be 2 p.m. with all the action broadcast live on WaveCasts and TheW.tv.
