PEPPERDINE INSIDE LOOK: WESTPHAL RECALLS PAULEY FRUSTRATIONS.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

An hour before Pepperdine took the floor against UCLA Wednesday, first-year Waves coach Paul Westphal sat inside Pauley Pavilion sipping a cup of coffee and reminiscing.

Westphal is more familiar with Pauley as a player than a coach - having faced the Bruins three times during his career across town at USC betwwen 1969-72.

``I actually won twice here,'' Westphal said. ``We won my first year in the freshman game, then during my sophomore year. I was hurt my senior year and didn't get to play.''

Then he paused and looked around.

``But you know what?'' he said. ``I would have traded both those darn wins for a win during my junior year.''

In Westphal's junior year, USC spent most of the season ranked either first or second in the country. Unfortunately for them, the team they traded places with all season was UCLA, which beat the Trojans twice that year, their only two losses the whole season. Back then you only got to the NCAA Tournament by winning your conference championship.

So even though USC was the second-best team in the country, it didn't do it any good as UCLA won the Pac-8 title.

``We were 24-2, all dressed up and nowhere to go,'' Westphal said. ``Very frustrating.''

Westphal finally got his revenge Wednesday, thanks to a gutty performance by his young Waves, who walked into Pauley undaunted and not afraid, then ran past UCLA 85-78 in an upset. It was Pepperdine's first victory over UCLA since 1945.

Westphal said it doesn't make up for the bitterness three decades ago, but it was sweet.

``I'm very, very proud of these guys,'' Westphal said. ``UCLA is good, there's no doubt about that. But we came in here and played hard and did the things we needed to do to win. It was a great effort.''

Westphal wasn't the only one making up for past heartbreaks.

Senior Craig Lewis was with the Waves (2-1) two years ago when they lost to UCLA at the buzzer.

``So to come here my last year and get the win, that's pretty special,'' said Lewis, who had 18 points and four 3-pointers.

Sophomore Devin Montgomery, the former Alemany High and Moorpark College standout, hit four clutch free throws down the stretch, making up for the two misses he had last week in a double-overtime loss to Irvine.

``That felt good,'' Montgomery said. ``I had a chance to win it the game last week and didn't. But tonight I went to the free-throw line and knocked them down.''

Montgomery, who has taken over starting point guard duties, finished with 10 points.

Jimmy Miggins, like Montgomery a junior college transfer playing in his first year at Pepperdine, had a team-high 20 points and helped the Waves take control by scoring eight points during a three-minute stretch midway through the second half to make the score 56-50.

``We've got good players,'' said Lewis, whose played for three coaches at Pepperddine. ``A lot of people don't know about these good players we have. We're a West Coast Conference school and we don't get the fanfare that UCLA and USC get, but hopefully this win will get us some attention.''

As it turns out the loss last week to Irvine - ``A game we had,'' Westphal said - was a big help. The Waves learned from their mistakes and applied the lessons in the closing moments to hang on and beat the Bruins.

``That's how you improve as a team,'' Montgomery said. ``You take what happens and grow from it. That Irvine game, we should have won, but we let it get away. This time we hit our free throws and defended against the 3-pointer. That shows we're headed in the right direction.''