THAT'S REAL HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

MALIBU - Late in the first half of Pepperdine's basketball game against Gonzaga on Saturday, the crowd-control people pulled the steel barricades in front of the students section a couple of feet closer to the court, creating a little more standing room on the rare night at Firestone Fieldhouse when a little more standing room was necessary.

By late in the second half, as Pepperdine finally consolidated its lead and the students pressed forward in anticipation, those of us on press row feared we were about to get a painful demonstration of what ``over the back'' really means.

Indeed, the crowd rushed the cort after the buzzer sounded on the 80-69, upset victory that lifted the Waves into a first-place tie with Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. But no injuries were reported later in the press room, although nobody could rule out a slow-developing case of whiplash.

The crowd of 3,314 had already done its damage during the game, giving the Waves the kind of lift they never expect from their laid-back fans.

``We've never had that here before,'' forward Kelvin Gibbs said after leading the Pepperdine front line with 12 points, including a timely three-point play after Gonzaga cut the lead from 67-48 to 67-60 with four minutes left in the game. ``That was a big key tonight. We didn't want to let each other done. We also didn't want to let the crowd down.''

It was Homecoming. It was Gonzaga coming - the WCC's marquee team, an NCAA Elite Eight contestant in 1999. And Pepperdine was coming into the game only a game behind Gonzaga at 18-6 and 8-1 in conference play, its best records in eight years.

Three factors combined to produce an unusual outpouring of emotion in the tidy gym the Waves have called home for 17 years of highs and lows.

All of the seats had been snapped up by Tuesday, and for the first time ever at Firestone, fans who showed up on game night expecting to buy a ticket found a ``Sold Out'' sign in the window.

The victory gave a big boost to the Waves' chances of making the NCAA tournament.

They've already been to the Orange Bowl.

That's what Firestone turned into on this rainy Saturday night at the beach.

Shirtless students, their painted chests spelling out G-O-W-A-V-E-S, mugged for the cable TV cameras.

There were orange and blue jerseys, orange and blue bandanas, orange and blue baseball hats, orange and blue Cat in the Hat hats, orange and blue painted faces.

There were orange Converse high-tops and orange hair (oh, sorry, is that your natural color?).

And although you wondered about these kids when they started out by razzing the Bulldogs of Gonzaga with a chant of ``dogs can't swim'' (they can't?), the crowd quickly got in the swing of things.

The roar began 25 minutes before tip-off and never let up.

It put an extra bounce in the Waves' strides as the ``Pressuredine'' defense forced Gonzaga to miss nine of its first 12 shots. It put extra spring in the Waves' shoes as they dominated the rebounding early on.

``It was an extra, sixth man for us, it gave us confidence,'' said Craig Lewis, Pepperdine's actual sixth man, who led both teams with 20 points, among them the back-to-back 3-point shots that gave the Waves their first double-figure lead at 18-8. ``You can't compare it to (previous Firestone crowds).''

``That,'' said point guard Tezale Archie, ``was a championship game.''

He was talking about the frenzied atmosphere. He might also have been talking about the impact of the result, which should improve Pepperdine's RPI, already good enough to put the school in the NCAA tournament if the season ended now.

Pepperdine has four regular-season games left before the WCC tournament at Santa Clara. Only one more game, against Loyola Marymount on Wednesday, is at Firestone Fieldhouse. One more time the home fans will have to show their colors.

To the barricades!