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Pepperdine's emergence good for WCC

Pepperdine's surprising 67-61 win over BYU last Thursday might have made the West Coast Conference a one-bid league when the NCAA Tournament selection committee gets around to doling out at-large bids in March, but in the larger scheme of things it has to be considered good for the future of the league.

The WCC historically has not been well-balanced. There have always been three title contenders at the top — Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and BYU — and then everybody else, at least since BYU joined the conference in 2011. Sure, San Francisco made a bit of a run at the leaders last year, until one considers this little nugget: Rex Walters' Dons went 0-7 against the Big Three.

Pepperdine looks like it has a little staying power, though, because the Marty Wilson-coached Waves play excellent defense. They held a BYU team that is leading the nation in scoring (86.7 ppg.) to nearly 27 points below its average. Saturday, Pepperdine held San Diego to 17 points below its average in a 59-47 win that pushed the Waves (4-1, 11-5) into third place in the league.

Pepperdine went from playing in front of 15,852 at BYU to 1,378 at San Diego, but was still able to maintain its defensive intensity. Junior forward Stacy Davis, who had 23 points and eight rebounds off the bench against the Cougars, then 18 and seven at San Diego, is the WCC's Player of the Week.

Oregon State's big upset

Wayne Tinkle is starting to set the bar high for Gary Andersen's football rebuilding project at Oregon State. Tinkle, who coached at Montana for eight years before replacing Michelle Obama's brother at OSU, has the Beavers' basketball program trending upward.

Tinkle already has a signature win, too, as the Beavers stunned No. 7 Arizona 58-56 on Sunday night at Gill Coliseum. Oregon State, which was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 in a preseason poll of media members who cover the league, is now 2-1 in league, 11-4 overall, and has equaled its best start since the 1989-90 team opened 13-2. The 2011-12 team also started 11-4.

"In our circle, we knew what we were capable of, so this doesn't come as a surprise to us," said OSU guard Langston Morris-Walker, who made the go-ahead layup with 26 seconds left.

The Beavers (10-0) are one of four Pac-12 teams undefeated at home this season, and home teams have gone 16-4 in the first two weeks of league play.

Oly's Paulos still a sharpshooter

Local high school basketball experts were mildly surprised when former Olympus High star Nicholas Paulos chose to play his college ball a long way from Utah, but the 6-foot-7 senior is closing out a solid career at North Carolina-Greensboro. A sharpshooter since his days playing for Matt Barnes at Oly, Paulos is currently tied for ninth in the nation in made 3-pointers, with 53, and 28th in the country in 3-pointers per game, 2.94.

Last year, Paulos made 69 3-pointers, the eighth-most in UNCG history, and he currently has 224 treys in his career for the Spartans. He was 9 for 9 from 3-point range last year against Davidson, a school record.

Paulos has started in every game for the 5-13 Spartans this season, and is averaging 10.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.

BYU's Chase Fischer is also one of the nation's leaders in 3-point shooting. The Wake Forest transfer is tied for fourth in total 3-pointers with 59, and 18th in 3-pointers per game, at 3.11.

Mountain West suspends two

As basketball fights go, it was one of the better ones we've seen — but the ugly incident that erupted during Saturday's Colorado State-Air Force basketball game at AFA has rightfully resulted in a pair of one-game suspensions.

Air Force freshman guard Matt Mooney and Colorado State senior forward J.J. Avila will both have to sit out Wednesday night's respective games for their roles in the fracas, which broke out after Avila and Air Force's Zach Kocur got tangled up and fell to the ground early in the second half of the game won 92-87 by CSU.

Avila momentarily got Kocur in a choke hold, and then Mooney punched the CSU player in the back during the brief melee and was ejected after officials spent more than 15 minutes reviewing it at the scorer's table. Mooney won't play at New Mexico. Avila, the team's leading scorer (15.2) and rebounder (7.5) will miss the Rams' home game against Nevada. Both players were charged with technical fouls, as was CSU's Tiel Daniels and AFA's Justin Hammonds.

"We accept and respect the Mountain West decision," CSU coach Larry Eustachy told the Coloradoan newspaper. "This unfortunate event does not reflect the true value we place on sportsmanship. I feel both teams regret the incident."