PEPPERDINE WASHED AWAY GONZAGA SNEAKS UP, SURPRISES WAVES IN KEY WCC GAME GONZAGA 93, PEPPERDINE 79.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

MALIBU - Craig Lewis shook his head and grimaced upon hearing the nasty truth, almost as if Pepperdine's senior guard didn't want to believe what he was hearing.

But facts are facts, and eventually Lewis collected himself and tried to make sense of it all.

It's bad enough the Waves let Gonzaga come to Firestone Fieldhouse and steal a huge 93-79 West Coast Conference victory. But that was just part of the problem.

The win puts the Bulldogs (15-5, 7-0) in control of the tight WCC race and knocks Pepperdine (14-6, 6-1) a game behind to second place, forcing the Waves to make up the difference somewhere along the way.

It's no easy task considering they still must go to Gonzaga in addition to tough venues like Santa Clara and San Diego.

That's bad enough.

But the fact Pepperdine, which had won eight in a row coming in and lost just once at home all year, allowed Gonzaga to shoot 66 percent from the field - including a sizzling 80 percent (16 of 20) in the decisive second half - was almost too much to take.

``I mean, I give them credit, they shot the rock tonight,'' Lewis said. ``But we still could have gotten a hand up in their face and make it tougher. We could have rotated better - we missed a lot of rotations out there. We were trapping, which is what we're supposed to do, but we didn't rotate back to the shooters.''

Casey Calvary took advantage, scoring 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting to lead five players in double figures. The others were Dan Dickau (16 points), Germayne Forbes (15), Blake Stepp (13) Alex Hernandez (15) and Anthony Reason (10).

Pepperdine got 32 points from Brandon Armstrong and 13 apiece from David Lalazarian and Kelvin Gibbs. But the Waves didn't shoot nearly as well as Gonzaga (44 percent on 27 of 61 shots) and didn't get to the free throw line as much (25 of 31 for the Bulldogs compared to 15 of 25 for the Waves).

It was hard to swallow, considering Pepperdine's strength is a swarming defense that creates turnovers and forces bad shots to ignite its transition game.

Too many times Friday the Waves were taking the ball out of bounds after giving up a basket rather then running the floor after rebounding misses.

Eight of those baskets were 3-pointers - the Bulldogs attempted 12 of them - on a staggering 67 percent shooting.

They were 6 of 7 on 3s in the second half, including two to get the half started.

That's because the 6-foot-8 Calvary opened up the perimeter with the success he was having in the paint. Once Pepperdine started sending more defenders hiw way, he kicked it out to open shooters and they kept knocking them down.

``I thought they did a good job of scoring around the basket (in the first half) and then we doubled down in the second half and they threw the ball back out twice in a row and made two long threes,'' Pepperdine coach Jan van Breda Kolff said.

``We just didn't do a good job of rotating defensively.''

Pepperdine got the start it wanted, racing to a 17-9 lead after five minutes. It was typical work by the Waves, forcing turnovers, running the floor and getting points in transition.

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Photo: Gonzaga's Dan Dickau, right, shoots over Pepperdine's Cedric Suitt Friday during their West Coast Conference game at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press