WCC Tournament Central | Bracket
LAS VEGAS – Pepperdine got off to a fast start and held off a second-half rally from Santa Clara men's basketball to advance to the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
Kameron Edwards had a double-double with 21 points and 16 rebounds, Colbey Ross scored 18 and Skylar Chavez added 15 points for the Waves who defeated the seventh-seeded Broncos 84-73 in Friday's second-round matchup.
A hobbled Josip Vrankic came off the bench to score 18 and DJ Mitchell and Tahj Eaddy each tallied 15 points for the Broncos (20-13) who trailed by as many as 21 before cutting the margin to single digits.
Ross was only 5 of 18 from the floor, including 1-for-6 on 3-point attempts, and turned the ball over seven times, but he registered eight rebounds and eight assists.
Sedrick Altman posted 12 points and Kessler Edwards added 11 for the sixth-seeded Waves (16-15) who won all three games this season against the Broncos.
Santa Clara trimmed a 15-point halftime deficit to 49-40 with 14 minutes left on a basket by Trey Wertz. The Broncos twice more got the deficit to nine points but no closer until there was less than 1 minute remaining.
Ross had 15 points in the second half, including 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.
The Waves, who will face Saint Mary's in one of Saturday's quarterfinals, held a 47-32 edge in rebounding and went 23-for-28 from the line.
"The storyline for us is that our guys really battled," Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek said. "We obviously got ourselves in a hole and you have to credit Pepperdine. They delivered a punch right between our eyes to start the game and once we got up and dusted ourselves off, our guys really fought hard."
Pepperdine scored 14 of the first 17 points of the game and the lead reached 28-8 with only 10 minutes gone.
The lead grew to 41-20 with less than 2 minutes left in the opening half but the Broncos scored the final six.
Ross was only 1-for-10 from the floor in the opening half, but he did have six rebounds and five assists.
Altman chipped in 11 points, including the first seven of the game, and Kameron Edwards had nine points and nine rebounds.
Vrankic missed two games with a severely sprained left ankle suffered against Pacific (Feb. 22) and played sparingly in Thursday's first-round win against Portland. He was 5-for-8 from the floor and helped spearhead the second half surge with 11 points.
"It's a testament to his toughness and his character," Sendek said. "The fact that he played at all, let alone like he did, is utterly amazing. One of the great gut checks in my coaching career. He struggled on defense to move his feet but what he gave our team in terms of heart, is really hard to put the right words together to describe how incredible it really was."
NOTES
• The Broncos hold a 79-63 lead in a series that began in 1956. The teams had split the first six all-time meetings in the tourney. The Waves have won the last three overall in the series after dropping six of the previous seven.
• Starting forward Guglielmo Caruso (right lower leg), who appeared in just four of the previous 17 games for a total of 31 minutes, did not play.
• With 18 points, Josip Vrankic moved up one spot to 30th on the Santa Clara all-time scoring list (1,123), passing Scott Lamson (1,120/1981-85).
• DJ Mitchell (15 points) scored in double figures for the fourth time in the last five games, including three in a row.
• Tahj Eaddy (15 points) reached double figures in scoring for the fifth time in the last six contests, including the last four. He is 10 points shy of 1,000 in his career.
• Santa Clara registered just eight assists on its 21 baskets. It marked only the fourth time this season the Broncos did not reach double figures in that category.
• The Broncos made 26 (of 34) free throws, their third-highest total against a conference foe this season (31 vs. Pacific, Jan. 18; 28 vs. Pacific, Feb. 22).
• There were five technical fouls called, all in the second half, including four on Pepperdine.
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