Saint Mary’s Gaels Take Down Pepperdine Waves In OT

The Saint Mary’s Gaels continued their long road trip this afternoon as they took on the Pepperdine Waves in yet another hard fought battle. The Gaels pulled off an impressive overtime win crashing the Waves 69-67.

The first half was up and down with both teams. Neither team was able to take full charge of the game. The defenses dominated limiting both side of the court in scoring. The Gaels overall normal offense was shut down. They shot poorly from the floor and 3-point land. Pepperdine’s solid defense was key in stopping the Gaels.

The biggest lead came at the half, off a blocked shot of Beau Levesque, which sent the Gaels into the locker room down by six. The score was 28-22.

For the first half the Gaels went just 9-for-30 (30 percent) from the floor and were stopped again going 3-for-13 (23.1 percent) from behind the arc.  Stephen Holt put up nine first-half points.

The Waves went 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) from the floor and 3-for-7 (42.9 percent) from 3. Jeremy Mason had 10 points.

In the second half the Gaels needed to turn on their A-game offense. Stephen Holt opened up with a layup for the Gaels.  Jordan Giusti followed with a layup of his own and the Gaels were off to a 4-0 second half run. With 16:37 to play Beau Levesque also hit a layup which tied the score 30-30. This forced a Pepperdine timeout.

By the first media timeout at 15:52 to play, the Gaels had a one point lead 31-30. The Gaels run continued and they were up 35-30 with 13:30 to play off a 9-0 run.

The Waves tied the score and Paul McCoy hit a solid 3, followed by a follow-up layup giving him five straight points. McCoy, who had been injury plagued for much of his career, is finally coming into his own and seems ready to play.

The battle continued as the Waves would not give up and with 3:31 to play off a Randy Bennett timeout, the Gaels were up just 1; 55-54.

With just over a minute to play the Gaels stayed up by 1; 58-57. The Gaels had the ball and Bennett took a timeout to strategize. Off the timeout, the Gaels were fouled and Brad Waldow went to the line. Waldow missed them both and somehow Beau Levesque got the rebound with 36 seconds to play. Stephen Holt went to line and he missed the first but hit the second putting the Gaels up 2; 59-57. Brendan Lane of the Waves hit a layup with 19.2 seconds and the game was tied 59-59.  The Gaels couldn’t get the winning basket and the game went into overtime.

In overtime, the battle continued with both teams taking one-point leads.  With 3:30 to play the score was tied again; 64-64.

With 1:21 to play the Gaels led 68-67. At this point, there had been 12 ties and 14 lead changes in the game. Down one, Pepperdine had the ball with 21.8 seconds and could not get the basket off of a block by Matt Hodgson. The Gaels had the ball with five seconds, maintaining a one-point lead. Carter was fouled and missed the first shot, but hit the second. Pepperdine could not answer and the Gaels picked up an incredible win this afternoon.

In a hard fought, fun to watch game, the Gaels finished the night 22-for-62 (35.5 percent) from the floor and were 6-for-22 (27.3 percent) from 3. Stephen Holt finished with a career-high 29 points, Beau Levesque had 14 and Kerry Carter had 11.

For the Waves, they went 23-for-55 (41.8 percent) from the floor. They were 5-for-12 (41.7 percent) from 3-point land. Leading the way was Brendan Lane with 19 points, while Jeremy Major had 14. Stacy Davis finished with 12 and Amadi Udenyi had 10.

The Gaels pick up another impressive road victory and move to 8-4 in the West Coast Conference. Pepperdine falls to 7-6 in conference play.

The Gaels head back home and next face San Diego on Thursday. Tipoff time is 8 p.m. Pacific.