PORTLAND, OREGON – An extremely shorthanded Pepperdine men's basketball team battled Portland down to the final seconds on Saturday evening, but the Pilots escaped with a 77-74 West Coast Conference victory.
 
Down to eight available players, Pepperdine (7-22, 1-13) overcame an 11-point second-half deficit to take a late lead. But the Pilots (16-12, 6-6) scored the game's final seven points, and the Waves missed two shots in the final seconds that would have given them the lead back.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) scored 22 points on 10-for-16 shooting. It was his fourth 20-point game of the season. He also tied his career high with four assists.
• Freshman guard Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) scored 18 points and had five rebounds. He made two three-pointers, his 23rd straight game with a three. He now has 64 on the season, two shy of the Pepperdine freshman record.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) scored a season-high 17 points. He made four three-pointers and also had eight rebounds and six assists.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The first half featured seven ties and five lead changes. Pepperdine took an early 8-6 lead after a Mallette jumper, but the Pilots went up by six at 19-13 with 12 minutes left. Portland still led by five at 30-25 with more than three minutes left, but the Waves scored six straight points, four of them by senior guard Jay Yoon (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia HS), to take the lead at 31-30. But the Pilots would go into the break with a 37-33 lead.
 
The second half included another six ties and four lead changes. But first, Portland extended its lead to 11 points at 53-42 with 12 1/2 minutes left. The Waves erased that deficit quickly, however, as Zidek scored five points and sophomore guard Majok Deng (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic HS) finished off an 11-0 run over two minutes, tying it at 53 with a little more than 10 minutes to play.
 
Pepperdine took its first lead of the second half at 59-57 with 8:43 left after back-to-back jumpers by Mallette. Portland scored six straight to go up four at 63-59 with 7:47 to go. The Waves came right with five points by Zidek and a basket by Mallette to take a 66-63 lead with six minutes left. Pepperdine's biggest lead of the night was four points, which came at 70-66 with 4:45 left after a Zidek bucket, and again at 74-70 with 1:12 left after a Mitchell three-pointer.
 
Those would be Pepperdine's final points, however. Portland made two free throws with 1:03 left, got a defensive stop, and then a three-point play with 27 seconds to go to take a 75-74 lead. The Waves took two shots with under 10 seconds to play, but both missed. After Portland made two free throws to go up by three, Pepperdine missed an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer.
 
KEY STATS 

• The Waves finished with a better shooting percentage, 48.2% to 45.3%.
• Pepperdine also fared better beyond the arc, going 11-for-20 (55.0%) to Portland's 7-for-30 (23.3%).
• Seventeen turnovers hurt the Waves, as the Pilots had only eight and outscored Pepperdine 18-11 in points off turnovers.
• Portland was led by Moses Wood's 24 points and Tyler Robertson's 22 points and nine assists.

NOTABLE 

• Maxwell Lewis, Jade' Smith and Darryl Polk Jr. did not make the trip due to injuries.
• Yoon made his first career start and had career highs of seven points and 26 minutes played. Deng also saw increased playing time, with season highs of 18 minutes and eight points.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine hosts Santa Clara on Thursday (Feb. 24) at 7 p.m. It's the final game of the season at Firestone Fieldhouse and the Waves' four seniors will be honored pregame. The contest will be streamed on the WCC Network.