*One play for Thursday:

 

St Mary's at Pepperdine (-2) - 7:00pm Pacific - Game #741-742

The Waves are coming off two disappointing road losses at Portland and at Gonzaga last weekend but now return home to Firestone Fieldhouse where they are not only undefeated this year but have not been threatened by anyone.  Their 7-0 home record includes wins over Wisconsin by 14, UNLV by 8, Colorado State by 15, San Diego by 16 and San Francisco by 7.  The Waves have looked bad in some road games this year but actually did not play that poorly on recent trip.  Portland followers said their team played its best game of the season in their win over Pepperdine and Gonzaga looked awesome at home in beating the Waves.  In any event, Pepperdine has consistently given big effort after big effort in their home games this year.  Senior forward Glen McGowan has been a major force scoring and rebounding all season.  Junior guard Alex Acker continues his silky smooth stat stuffing play.  Both players have been getting attention from NBA scouts.  Senior forward Youkouba Diawara has had somewhat of a subpar year but his production has steadily been improving over the past few weeks.  Those three are as good as any trio in the conference.

 

St Mary's should thank its schedule maker.  The Gaels played 10 straight home games from mid December to mid January, going 9-1.  They notched a monumental 89-81 win over Gonzaga in the process but since then have not looked very good.  They escaped with a 1 point win over Air Force in next game and then most recently were blown out by Santa Clara 65-42.  SMC played some tough non-conference games away from home early in the season with mixed results but this will probably be their toughest "true" road game of the year so far.  It will be even tougher being that it is their first conference road game and first road game of any kind in over a month.

 

Pepperdine lost at St Mary's last year in their regular season finale by 9 and then again in the semi-final of the WCC tournament by 5 points which ended their season.  They had to play the tournament game without standout forward Glen McGowan due to a sprained knee suffered in opening round game.  They still gave a spirited effort but came up short.  Those two losses are sure to be still lingering in the minds of Pepperdine players and they will be out for payback tonight.  I really do not think the Waves will lose at home all year, even when Gonzaga comes to town.  Expect a solid Pepperdine win.

 

Official Play: Pepperdine -2  1 UNIT