Gaels Win 25th Game at Pepperdine
By Mike Rose
The Gaels sent the Waves out to sea tonight with a solid 87-48 win on the road. This win, for the sixth consecutive season, has given the Gaels a 25 plus game winning total. The Gaels move to 25-5 overall and are now 13-2 in the WCC. Pepperdine drops to 12-16 for the season and 4-11 in the WCC.
The Gaels came out strong dominating the first half tonight. They got off to an early 15-4 lead with 12:39 in the first half off a Gael 7-0 run. Pepperdine’s Jordan Baker hit a three closing the Gap 15-7. Matthew Dellavedova answered with a three and started the Gaels on a 9-0 run bringing the score to 24-7 with 9:26 in the half. The Gaels continued to build their lead and got up by 18 with 2:30 in the half; 32-14. The Gaels sent the Waves to the locker room crashed 36-19.
For the half, leading the way for the Gaels was Matthew Dellavedova with 10. He went 4-10 from the floor. Both Stephen Holt and Jordan Page had 5. Team wise, the Gaels went 16-31 (51.6%) from the floor and 4-11 36.4% from three point land. St Mary’s put up 20 from the paint and the bench had 12.
For Pepperdine, Stacy Davis led the way with eight going 4-10 from the floor. Jordan Baker had five. As a team the Waves went 6-24 (25.0%) from the floor and 1-4 (25.0%) from threes. The Waves put up 10 points from the paint and their bench had 3.
The second half was all Gaels. They started the second half with a 10-1 run building their lead to 46-20 with 17:21 to play. With 9:23 to play off a Dellavedova three pointer the Gael lead jumped to 29 points with the Gaels up 63-34. Pepperdine was unable to recover and lost decisively 87-48.
Leading the way tonight for the Gaels was Matthew Dellavedova with 25. Tonight’s point total puts him in the history books as St. Mary’s all-time leading scorer. Also in double digits, was Holt with 13 and Waldow with 11.
For the game the Gaels went 33-64 (51.6%) from the floor and 9-17 (52.9%) from beyond the arc. Additionally from the line the Gaels went 12-15 (80.0%) keeping them at the 80+% mark for the last three games. The Gaels had 42 tonight from the paint. The Bench had 29. Eight came from Jordan Giusti and Beau Levesque ended the night with seven.
For the waves, Davis ended the night with 12. Baker had 11. It was an overall poor shooting performance for the Waves. They put up just 13-53 (24.5%) from the floor and were 4-20 (20.0%) from beyond the arc. Pepperdine scored 18 from the paint and their bench had 13.
The Gaels return home to face South Bay rival Santa Clara to close the season on Saturday night at 7:00pm.