Pepperdine Squeaks By to Advance

SPOKANE, Wash. — Disaster turned to delight for Pepperdine at the last moment Saturday, and a team that started the season 1-6 is one win from the NCAA women’s tournament after a 59-58 victory over Loyola Marymount in a West Coast Conference tournament semifinal at McCarthey Athletic Center.

Loyola Marymount’s missed opportunities in the final seconds allowed fourth-seeded Pepperdine (13-16) to advance to the title game against Santa Clara today with an automatic NCAA bid on the line.

“The only quote I have is, ‘God didn’t say it would be easy, and it wasn’t,’ ” Pepperdine Coach Julie Rousseau said.

Loyola Marymount was trailing by three with three seconds left when the Lions got an unexpected second life after Pepperdine’s Teiosha George fouled Amanda Patton on a desperate three-point attempt.

Patton, an 83% free-throw shooter, made the first two but missed the third, then missed a last-chance three-pointer before the buzzer.

“Amanda Patton is cool as a cucumber. I love her on the line at that moment,” said Loyola Marymount Coach Julie Wilhoit, whose third-seeded Lions finished the season 17-12. “It doesn’t come down to the last free throw.”

Pepperdine wasted some chances to put the game away, then faced the prospect of overtime when Patton went to the line with a chance to tie.

“Coming to the huddle after we fouled, there was a little despair, or more than anything, ‘I can’t believe it,’ ” Rousseau said. “But there was still time on the clock. We had a play set up in case she had made them.”

Now they face a team they lost to by five points in January and by three in the final game of the regular season.

Today’s title game is a long way from the Waves’ dismal start.

“It was tough,” said Daphanie Kennedy, who led Pepperdine with 18 points. “I mean, when you’re 1-6, you’re like, ‘Man, it’s got to be the bottom.’

“Our mind-set was, we’re at the bottom, the only place we can go is up.”

Santa Clara 75, San Francisco 65 -- Santa Clara’s Chandice Cronk made a long three-pointer with four seconds left to force overtime, and the top-seeded Broncos (19-10) pulled away in the extra period to reach the title game.

“That’s probably the biggest shot of my entire life,” Cronk said.

Dominique Carter led seventh-seeded San Francisco (9-20) with 22 points.