MORAGA, California – A short-handed Pepperdine men's basketball team lost at Saint Mary's, 81-57, on Saturday evening in West Coast Conference play.
With only eight available scholarship players, the Waves' four freshmen scored 82.5% of the points (47 of 57) tonight.
Saint Mary's improved to 17-4, 5-1, while Pepperdine fell to 6-17, 0-8.
BIG WAVES
- Freshman forward Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) had a team-high 16 points along with six rebounds and two steals.
- Freshman center Carson Basham (Phoenix, Ariz./AZ Compass Prep), making his first career start, scored a season-high 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
- Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds, plus two steals.
PLAY BY PLAY
Pepperdine's only lead came at 2-0 after an opening basket by Mitchell. But, the Gaels scored the next five points and didn't trail again. SMC took its first double-digit lead at 21-11 just after the midway point of the first half. The Gaels went up by 20 at 37-17 and were up 41-21 at the break.
The Waves nearly doubled their offensive output in the second half and almost played the Gaels to a standstill after the break. Saint Mary's took its biggest lead of the night at 58-27. But at 68-39, Lewis had five points and Basham had four during a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 68-48 with a little more than six minutes to play. The teams mostly traded points for the rest of the game.
KEY STATS
- The Waves were outshot 51.7% to 43.8%.
- Seventeen Pepperdine turnovers helped SMC to a 27-15 edge in points off turnovers.
- The Gaels doubled up the Waves in points in the paint, 40-20.
- Saint Mary's had five players score in double-figures, led by Matthias Tass and Tommy Kuhse with 16 points apiece.
NOTABLE
- The Waves played their second straight game without their leading scorer, Jan Zidek, who is day-to-day due to an injury. Darryl Polk Jr. was also unavailable.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine faces Pacific twice next week, first in Stockton on Thursday (Feb. 3) at 7 p.m. and then in Malibu on Saturday (Feb. 5) at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed on the WCC Network and on Thursday there will be an audio-only WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com.