WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT: Zags face Pepperdine for WCC Tournament championship

The third-seeded Pepperdine Waves earned a third chance to defeat top-seeded Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon with a 62-56 women's semifinal win against Saint Mary's College. The Waves defeated Loyola Marymount 60-51 in quarterfinals on Saturday.

"Really I just challenged our kids. I told them that this is not who we are and this is not what we worked for, we must respond and they did," Head Coach Julie Rousseau said.
The No. 17 Bulldogs defeated the Waves 107-64 in Malibu, Calif., on Jan. 21 and 87-45 on Feb. 20 in Spokane. A Pepperdine win would send them to their first NCAA Tournament since the 2006 season when they upset top-seeded Santa Clara in the WCC Championship Game.

"Every time we have played them we have not played well and it's going to take every bit of mental toughness and belief in ourselves that we can get the job done," Rousseau said. "That was our goal to be in the championship game. I mean, we're not going to forfeit the game. We got to play it."

Miranda Ayim scored a team-high 13 points and Waves rode a 20-2 second-half run past the Gaels. Ayim was 6-of-15 from the field and battled foul trouble all game. She hit a key jumper with 16.5 seconds left to push the Waves' lead to four.

"It feels great 'cause we're going to the ship," Ayim said. "I was struggling a little bit shooting but I saw my other teammates like Lauren Bell and Katie Menton making their shots so I felt like I had to put mine too."

Ayim entered the conference tournament averaging 15 points per game. She scored eight points against the Zags in the first meeting, and was held scoreless in the McCarthey Center last month.

Heather Bowman and Courtney Vandersloot have performed well against Pepperdine this season. In Malibu, Bowman had 26 points and five rebounds while Vandersloot had 20 points and 9 assists. Vandersloot finished with 23 points and nine assists in the second meeting.

Jazmine Jackson scored 16 points against Gonzaga in the final regular season encounter.
The Bulldogs have won 19 consecutive conference games dating back to the 2008-2009 season. Their last loss was in Malibu on Feb. 21 against Pepperdine. The Waves defeated the Bulldogs 72-62.

While the Bulldogs likely won't need another win to crack the NCAA Tournament, they aren't looking past their conference foe.

    "Our players have been really able to focus on what's next and that's really all we can control, what we do tomorrow," Graves said. "The honest truth is if we just focus on us and worry about how we play we're going to be fine."

     "I think we are playing how we want to play to an extent," Bowman said. "Obviously we are doing some things well right now but also there is a lot of room to grow. We want to continue to grow with how we are playing right now as we play though this tournament and the rest of the year."

    Tomorrow's game is scheduled for noon at the Orleans Arena. It will be televised on ESPNU.