After 33 minutes of defending well, leading comfortably and keeping Pepperdine from any truly threatening run, Tomley put the game away for his team in just two minutes.

A 3-pointer with 6:44 left, another at the 6:00 mark and one more with 5:05 remaining had Weber State up 15 and the Wildcats went on to a 68-53 victory at Arizona State’s Mullett Arena, taking the Desert Division belt at the two-day Arizona Tip-Off.

“Guys were really locked in tonight,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said. “Pepperdine, they really got after New Mexico State (Friday) … for us to ome out and hold them to 53, I thought our switching was excellent and we just had some really good performances on the glass.”

Tomley finished with 28 points on 6-of-7 shooting from behind the arc. That ties a career-high of six 3s Weber State knows well: Tomley did it with Idaho State in February for a win over WSU in Pocatello.

Blaise Threatt added 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, giving Tomley and Threatt (49) nearly as many points as Pepperdine managed for the game.

Strangely, both teams had one player make all but one of their 3-pointers. WSU made seven, with the non-Tomley shooters going a woeful 1 of 17, including Dyson Koehler shooting 0 of 8. Koehler, however, pulled down a team-high nine rebounds helping WSU clear the glass of Pepperdine’s cold shooting, adding six points. Nigel Burris grabbed seven rebounds.

“We’re still not locked in offensively yet. I think we’re a couple weeks away from really feeling good about what we’re doing out there, but we’re getting there,” Duft said.

Zion Bethea had three of Pepperdine’s four 3-pointers; the Waves shot 4 of 14. Big man Bilal Coulibaly totaled 17 points and 11 rebounds for Pepperdine (2-6).

Tomley’s 8-of-8 day at the free-throw line helped Weber State (4-4) to a 17-of-19 performance. He was named MVP of the event’s Desert Division, averaging 22 points per game and shooting 10 of 17 from the 3-point line.

“Miguel stepped up and made some big shots for us, and we needed it,” Duft said.

The game’s start was a flash that belied what was to come. Pepperdine opened 4 of 4 from the field and a 3 from Stefan Todorovic had the Waves up 10-2 before two minutes had expired.

But Pepperdine shot just 3 of 22 the rest of the half.

“I thought our defensive effort was tremendous,” Duft said. “Every possession it felt like we were making them earn it.”

A Tomley 3, an inside bucket from Alex Tew and an and-one drive from Threatt got Weber State ahead 17-14, and the Wildcats never looked back.

Another Tomley 3 had WSU up 33-19 before Pepperdine mounted a short rally on either side of halftime (the score was 33-23 at the break).

Bethea hit a 3-pointer to make it 35-29 at the 18:11 mark of the second half — the one decent threat Pepperdine made. Threatt put WSU up 45-33 and the Wildcats would go the next six minutes without a field goal — but the Waves never cut the margin smaller than eight points the rest of the contest.

That was, in part, due to two technical fouls whistled against Pepperdine, one a taunting whistle to Bethea after his steal and 3-pointer cut the deficit to nine points. Tomley went 6 of 6 at the foul line during the field-goal drought to maintain the margin.

A pair of Moe Odum free throws had the score at 51-43 with 9:50 left before Threatt finally ended his team’s drought with a steal and layup, and a Koehler board led to Trevor Hennig scoring his only points on a transition bucket to make it 55-45 with 8:08 remaining.

“We kind of stalled out, we just kept missing and then Trevor got the transition … he just attacks their 6-11 guy and finishes. He has that capability and that was a big basket for us,” Duft said.

Tomley soon put the game away. Pepperdine called timeout at 66-53, trying to stop the barrage. Both teams then shot 0 of 11 over the final 4:22 and WSU salted away its third straight win.

Weber State next plays its two games in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, hosting North Dakota State on Wednesday before traveling to North Dakota on Saturday, Dec. 7. NDSU most recently crushed Utah Valley by 20 after UVU had a great road win at Murray State.