MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team won its third straight game and had a season high for points in an 83-77 victory over Southeast Missouri on Saturday evening.
 
The Redhawks (5-7) had a big run to start the second half, but the Waves (5-8) immediately countered with an impressive spell of their own to reclaim the lead and go on for the victory.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) had a team-high 15 points along with four rebounds.
• Senior guard Darryl Polk Jr. (Long Beach, Calif./Long Beach Poly HS) had a season-high 13 points along with four assists and two steals.
• Senior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) went 6-for-7 from the field for 12 points, and also had six rebounds and five assists.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) contributed 11 points, making three three-pointers, and also had six assists and three steals.
• Freshman guard Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) scored 10 points.
• Graduate transfer forward Keith Fisher III (Los Angeles, Calif./Illinois State) grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds and scored seven points.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
SEMO's only lead of the first half came at 5-2. Tied at nine, Mallette scored five points in a 10-1 run over 3+ minutes to make it 19-10 in Pepperdine's favor. A 6-0 run capped off by a Mallette fast-break lay-up gave the Waves their first double-digit lead at 29-19 with just under six minutes left. The Waves also led by 10 at 35-25 after a lay-up by senior center Victor Ohia Obioha (Owerri, Nigeria/Hillcrest HS). However, Southeast Missouri scored the final five points of the first half to make it 35-30 at the break.
 
SEMO also scored the first five points of the second half to tie the game up. That was part of a 16-2 run to open the second half as the Redhawks took a nine-point lead at 46-37. But Pepperdine came back with an impressive run of its own over the next six minutes, outscoring SEMO 22-6 and regaining the lead at 59-52 with nine minutes to go. A Zidek lay-up pushed the lead back up to 10 at 64-54, and two Zidek free throws also made it a 10-point game at 66-56 with 6 1/2 minutes left.
 
The Redhawks closed the gap to four points several times in the final minutes, but every time that Southeast Missouri made a shot, the Waves came back with a big one of their own before finally closing out the win.
 
KEY STATS

• The Waves were outshot 52.6% to 44.6%.
• But Pepperdine offset SEMO's shooting with big advantages in second-chance points (19-4) and points off turnovers (27-15).
• Pepperdine grabbed 15 offensive rebounds to Southeast Missouri's five and had a 39-29 rebounding edge.
• The Waves forced a season-high 21 turnovers.
• Southeast Missouri was led by Phillip Russell's 25 points, as well as 15 points and 10 rebounds from Nygal Russell (the younger brother of former Pepperdine player Atif Russell).

NOTABLE 

• This was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
• The Waves are 5-0 this season when outrebounding the opponent, and 2-0 when five players score in double-figures.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine visits Oregon on Tuesday (Dec. 21) at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com.