MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's basketball team made a second-half surge to challenge Portland, but the Pilots ended up leaving Firestone Fieldhouse with an 82-63 victory on Saturday evening in West Coast Conference play.
 
The Pilots (10-7, 0-2) ended a seven-game losing streak to the Waves (6-13, 0-4).
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) had a team-high 17 points, his 10th consecutive game in double-figures. He also had five rebounds and three assists.
• Freshman forward Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) poured in 16 points off the bench. He made three three-pointers and had six rebounds, three steals and two assists.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) provided 10 points, a career-high nine rebounds and six assists.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
Portland hit its first three shots to jump out to an 8-0 lead. It was 26-13 before Pepperdine put together back-to-back baskets for the first time, a pair of jumpers by senior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) that made it 26-17 with 8 1/2 minutes left. The only single-digit deficit in the first half that came after that was at 41-32 after a Lewis three-pointer. It was 43-32 at the break.
 
Portland led 52-39 with 12:24 left when Pepperdine turned things around, at least for a moment. Mitchell had five points in a 10-1 run, which was capped off by a Lewis three-pointer that made it 53-49 with 9 1/2 minutes to go. But then the Waves sputtered offensively for the next couple of minutes, and the Pilots capitalized by scoring eight straight points to get the game back into double-digits. The Waves wouldn't cut into the deficit any more, and the game's final margin was the biggest of the contest.
 
KEY STATS 

• Pepperdine was outshot 41.7% to 39.0%.
• Most of the Pilots' winning margin came at the free throw line, where they were 22-for-28 compared to the Waves' 8-for-16.
• Seventeen Pepperdine turnovers helped Portland to a 15-4 edge in points off turnovers.
• Portland got 22 points from both Moses Wood and Chris Austin.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine visits PCH Cup rival Loyola Marymount on Thursday (Jan. 20) at 8 p.m. The game will be televised locally on Bally Sports West and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com.