If the conference tournament had been held three weeks earlier, the Waves might be feeling pretty good about their chances.

They played their best basketball of the season during a five-game stretch between Jan. 29 and Feb. 12.Pepperdine won four of those games and had victories over Santa Clara and San Diego in the final two of that span.

The young Waves had taken a quantum leap, it seemed, with a 5-5 conference record, an amazing accomplishment considering the Waves were picked to finish eighth and had been 4-17 before that two-week surge.With a team built around freshmen, further improvement appeared possible and a big finish looked like a real possibility.

However, the Waves got battered and bruised in their two-game road trip against Portland and Gonzaga and finished the regular season losing their final five games.

The last game was particularly troubling because it was a home loss to San Francisco, which was tied for last place and had been beaten by the Waves earlier in the season on the Dons' home court.

The Waves got off to a horrible start against San Francisco, hitting just two of their first 17 shots and scoring just six points in the game's first 10 1/2 minutes.They were never able to recover.

"We went up to Portland and Gonzaga and got beat up pretty badly," coach Tom Asbury said."We missed all kinds of shots against Portland.And we struggled to score the ball the last few games."

Young teams typically do not respond well after finishing the regular season poorly, so it's hard to imagine Pepperdine making much noise in the conference tournament.

Finishing sixth is still a major accomplishment for the Waves, who lost their first 12 games of the season against Division I opponents and seemed destined to finish seventh or eighth in the WCC.

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