Pacific fends off Pepperdine with an 89-84 WCC tourney win (Mar 03, 2017)
LAS VEGAS (AP) Ray Bowles scored 26 points and made 11 for 12 foul shots and Pacific withstood a career-high 41 points from Pepperdine's Lamond Murray Jr. for an 89-84 win Friday night in the first round of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
Pacific advanced to play WCC top seed and No. 4-ranked Gonzaga in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Nolan Taylor's layup brought the Waves to within 71-70 with 6:05 left before Bowles converted a 3-point play off a layup and drew the foul on Taylor. Anthony Townes made 1 of 2 foul shots for a 75-70 lead and Pacific (11-21) held on from there.
Pepperdine (9-22) led 42-41 at halftime.
Townes scored 19 points, T.J. Wallace 13 and Tonko Vuko 10 for Pacific, which shot 32 of 60 (53 percent).
Murray shot 13 for 26 - including 4 for 7 from 3-point range - and 11 for 14 from the foul line and collected 10 rebounds. Jeremy Major had 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds.
