MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team dropped its home game to Saint Mary's, 77-62, on Thursday night.
 
The Waves fell to 6-12 overall and 0-3 in the West Coast Conference, while the Gaels improved to 13-4, 1-1.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) scored a team-high 17 points, his ninth straight game in double-figures. He also had a team-high seven rebounds.
• Freshman forward Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) scored 15 points off the bench, making six of eight shots and three of four three-pointers. He also had two steals.
• Senior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) contributed 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves never led as the Gaels opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers. It was a one-point game at 11-10 after a Lewis fast-break lay-up with 14:30 left. But Saint Mary's then hit three three-pointers in an 11-0 run, pushing the lead to 22-10. The closest the Waves got the rest of the half was seven points, at 29-22 with five minutes left, after a pair of Zidek free throws. But, SMC then went on a 7-0 run to take its biggest lead of the half at 14 points at 36-22, and led 39-30 at the break.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers by Lewis helped the Waves close the gap to five points at 57-52 with a little less than 10 minutes to play. But the Gaels then went on a 9-1 run to extend the lead back up to 13 with five minutes left, and the Waves got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
 
KEY STATS

• Saint Mary's outshot the Waves, 52.9% to 40.7%.
• The Gaels went 12-for-24 from beyond the arc, while the Waves were 8-for-18.
• Pepperdine had 11 offensive rebounds to SMC's four, but the Gaels had an 8-5 edge in second-chance points.
• Saint Mary's got a game-high 20 points from Logan Johnson. Matthias Tass had 10 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

NOTABLE

• The Waves changed up the starting lineup for the first time in 15 games when Keith Fisher III became a late scratch.
• This was the third game in a stretch where the Waves are scheduled to play seven games in 13 days.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine's homestand continues on Saturday (Jan. 15) against Portland at 5 p.m. Ticket information and COVID-19 entry policies for Firestone Fieldhouse can be found here. The game will be streamed online via WaveCasts on the WCC Network.