MALIBU, California – On Senior Night, the Pepperdine men's basketball team hung with Santa Clara for most of the contest, but the Broncos pulled away late to earn an 89-73 West Coast Conference victory on Thursday.
 
It was a six-point game with more than six minutes to play but the Waves (7-23, 1-14) went on an unfortunate scoring drought of nearly six minutes, and the Broncos (19-10, 9-5) put the game away with an 11-0 run.
 
BIG WAVES

• Freshman guard Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) had a 20-point game for the fourth time in the last five games. He scored a team-high 24 points (16 in the second half) and made 11 of his 18 shots. He made two three-pointers and has the tied the Pepperdine freshman record for three-pointers in a season with 66. That also extended his streak to 24 straight games with a three. He was the only Wave to score in the game's final 11 minutes.
• Junior forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) contributed 15 points and sank three three-pointers.
• Senior guard Jay Yoon (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia HS) made his second career start and posted numerous career highs, including 10 points (all in the first half), five assists and 35 minutes played.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) had nine points, six rebounds and five assists.
• Senior center Victor Ohia Obioha (Owerri, Nigeria/Hillcrest HS) had nine points and a career-high 13 rebounds.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
There were six lead changes and four ties in the first half. Mallette hit back-to-back jumpers to give the Waves what would be their largest lead of the game of five points at 18-13. Pepperdine would also lead by five at 22-17 and 24-19. But, a 12-2 Santa Clara run would put the Broncos in front to stay. Yoon scored five straight points late to make it 44-43, but Santa Clara scored the last six points of the half to go into the break with a 50-43 lead.
 
Santa Clara built a 12-point lead at 68-56, but Zidek sank a pair of three-pointers and Mallette made a basket to cut the deficit to four at 68-64 with less than 11 minutes to go. That was the first of eight straight points by Mallette for the Waves, the last one coming with 6:26 left that made it a six-point deficit at 76-70.
 
But Pepperdine would go cold down the stretch, not scoring again until Mallette hit a three-pointer with 36 seconds left. In the meantime, Santa Clara had scored 11 straight to take its biggest lead of the game at 17 points.
 
KEY STATS 

• The Waves were outshot 57.6% to 46.3%.
• Santa Clara controlled the inside game, outscoring Pepperdine 60-30 in points in the paint. Thirty-eight of the Broncos' 50 first-half points came in the paint.
• Turnovers were near even, but SCU enjoyed a 19-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
• Santa Clara had five players score in double-figures and was led by Jalen Williams' 25 points.

NOTABLE 

• The Waves only suited up nine players and used eight. Maxwell Lewis is out for the season and Darryl Polk Jr. missed his second straight game.
• Jade' Smith returned after missing the previous four games. After a pregame ceremony honoring the seniors, he was joined in the starting lineup with fellow seniors Yoon and Ohia Obioha.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine plays at BYU on Saturday (Feb. 26) in the regular-season finale. The game is at 6 p.m. MT / 5 p.m. PT. It will be televised by ESPNU and there will be an audio-only WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com.