Saint Mary's One Step Away From Big Dance
3/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2004
Box Score
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - E.J. Rowland scored 21 points and Paul Marigney hit a halfcourt buzzer-beater at the end of the first half to help Saint Mary's beat Pepperdine 79-74 in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament Sunday night.
Marigney finished with 19 and combined with Rowland on clutch plays down the stretch for the Gaels (19-11), who advanced to play the winner of the Santa Clara-Gonzaga game in Monday's championship. Saint Mary's hasn't made the NCAA tournament in seven years.
Yakhouba Diawara scored 26 points to lead short-handed Pepperdine (15-16), which was outrebounded 53-37.
The Waves struggled at times without second-leading scorer Glen McGowan, who sprained his right knee Saturday against Loyola Marymount. But they put up a spirited fight after falling behind by 12 at the half.
Saint Mary's celebrated Marigney's first half buzzer-beater as if it were the last basket they'd need. For a while, it looked as if that might happen.
Pepperdine clamped down defensively in the second half, holding the Gaels without a field goal for the first 9:18. Saint Mary's missed 14 straight shots before Daniel Kickert scored in the post to make it 53-46.
Jonathan Sanders' 3-pointer made it 58-50 before Pepperdine answered with seven straight points, capped by Jesse Pinegar's 3-pointer.
Two free throws by Frederic Adjiwanou, a driving layup by Rowland and a 3-pointer from Marigney put the Gaels up eight. The Waves cut it to three before Kickert converted a three-point play as the shot clock expired.
Marigney scored on a feed from Rowland and Rowland hit a driving layup of his own to build the lead to seven with 1:33 to go.
In the final game of the regular season, Saint Mary's beat Pepperdine 104-95 behind 40 points from Marigney to earn the second seed in the tournament and a bye into the semifinals. That extra day off proved to be quite beneficial because of McGowan's injury.
McGowan's absence didn't appear to hurt the Waves early as Diawara hit his first five shots and had 12 points in less than seven minutes. Pepperdine led 27-20 after a basket by Robert Turner with 8:12 to go but hit only one basket the rest of the half.
Marigney started a 25-6 half-ending run and capped it with a 3-pointer from just inside halfcourt at the buzzer. Rowland had eight points in the spurt.
Kickert had 15 points and Sanders added 13 for the Gaels.
Alex Acker and Terrance Johnson scored 11 apiece for the Waves.
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