SPOKANE, Washington – Pepperdine's freshmen weren't intimidated in their first trip to the Kennel as they combined for 53 points, but the #4 Gonzaga men's basketball team was unstoppable in a 117-83 victory on Saturday night.
 
After a delay for both teams, tonight's contest was the West Coast Conference opener for both schools. The Bulldogs improved to 12-2, 1-0, while the Waves fell to 6-10, 0-1.
 
BIG WAVES

• Freshman guard Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) had a game-high 21 points, his third time this season with 20+ points. He made four three-pointers, his fourth time this season with at least four threes. He also had four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) scored a season-high 16 points. He made three three-pointers and had three rebounds and three assists.
• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) also had 16 points, along with five rebounds and three assists. He scored 13 of his points in the second half.
• Freshman forward Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) contributed 14 points off the bench and made two three-pointers. He also had four steals.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Bulldogs scored the first 10 points of the game and later went up 33-10 eight minutes into the contest. Gonzaga's biggest lead of the half was 26, which first came at 46-20 with six minutes to go. Mallette then scored the next six points, including a four-point play. He had 13 points in the final six minutes of the half. The Waves went into the break trailing 63-41.
 
Gonzaga scored 21 of the first 24 points in the second half to take an 84-44 lead with more than 14 minutes left. That would turn out to be the biggest lead of the game. At 92-52, the Waves had their best scoring run of the contest as senior guard Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS) scored, Lewis hit a three-pointer and sophomore forward Kendall Munson (Seattle, Wash./Garfield HS) made a basket in the paint, for seven consecutive points. Zidek scored eight points in a row for the Waves during one stretch.
 
KEY STATS 

• Gonzaga shot 54.2% to Pepperdine's 42.7%.
• The Bulldogs had a 68-32 edge in points in the paint, and 28-16 in points off turnovers.
• Both teams made 10 three-pointers.
• Gonzaga had six players score in double-figures, with a team-high 19 by Anton Watson.

NOTABLE 

• The freshmen scored 63.9% of the Waves' points tonight.
• The 83 points tied the Waves' second-highest output of the season.
• After two postponements, Pepperdine had 15 days off between games. This now starts a stretch where the Waves will play seven games in 13 days.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine has three home games coming up next week, beginning with Monday's (Jan. 10) contest against San Diego. To align with University health and safety protocols, this game will be closed to the general public. The 7 p.m. game will be streamed online via the WCC Network.