This is a 10* on BYU

Back on January 27th, BYU lost to Pepperdine. We don’t see them losing this time though. It should be more along the lines of their first meeting, which was four days before the second. BYU won that game by 11. The stakes are now higher as this is the semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament. A win here should solidify the Cougars as a NCAA Tournament team. They got the triple bye into the semis by virtue of fishing second and only behind Gonzaga in the regular season standings. Pepperdine finished third and so they had to beat Santa Clara on Saturday. That was a 78-70 win for the Waves as four-point favorites. They do a great job at defending the three-point line, but Pepperdine is pretty clearly the inferior side in this matchup. BYU has won four in a row by holding its opponents to a 39.2 FG%. Something to make note of is that Santa Clara was playing its third game in as many days when Pepperdine beat them. BYU is well rested coming into tonight and remembers the loss from two months ago. Their only other WCC losses (besides the one to Pepperdine) both were against Gonzaga. The majority of the wins came by double digits. Play on BYU

AAA