PROVO, Utah – Down to just seven players, the Pepperdine men's basketball team battled BYU before falling 75-59 in the regular-season finale on Saturday evening.
 
It was a four-point game with 12 minutes to play when the Waves (7-24, 1-15) began to run out of gas and the Cougars (21-9, 9-6) pulled away.
 
Houston Mallette broke the Pepperdine freshman record for three-pointers in a season. He now has 69 and surpassed the 66 made by Craig Davis in 1986-87.
 
BIG WAVES

• Freshman guard Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) scored a team-high 23 points, his fifth 20-point game in the last six contests. He made three three-pointers and extended his streak to 25 consecutive games with a three. Mallette also had four rebounds.
• Freshman guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Archbishop Mitty HS) scored a season-high 18 points and matched another season high with eight assists. He made two three-pointers and also had six rebounds.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves only led at 3-0 after a Mitchell three-pointer and at 5-2 after a basket by senior guard Jay Yoon (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia HS), but they wouldn't let BYU pull away in the first half. Despite Pepperdine going scoreless for 4 1/2 minutes, BYU only managed a 7-0 run during that time to take its biggest lead of the half at 20-13. The Waves kept at it, and a Mallette basket followed by a Yoon three-pointer made it a two-point game at 27-25. Mallette had the final bucket of the first half, cutting the halftime deficit to 36-33.
 
Mallette's record-breaking three-pointer made it 44-40 with 12:56 left, and his second three-pointer made it a six-point game at 49-43 with 11:07 left. But that's when the Cougars finally took control, going on a 13-3 run to build a 62-46 lead with 5:24 left. The teams mostly traded points the rest of the way.
 
KEY STATS 

• Pepperdine was outshot 46.0% to 37.5%. The Waves shot 48.4% in the first half but 27.3% in the second.
• Both teams committed 10 turnovers, but BYU had a 14-3 edge in points off turnovers.
• The Cougars used their size to advantages of 45-35 in rebounding and 40-18 in points in the paint.
• BYU got a massive game from freshman Fousseyni Traore, who finished with 25 points and 19 rebounds.

NOTABLE 

• Mallette and Mitchell scored 41 of the 59 points, and Pepperdine's three freshmen scored 76% of the points tonight.
• Four key Pepperdine players were out: Maxwell Lewis is done for the season, Darryl Polk Jr. missed his third straight game, Jade' Smith was out for the fifth time in the last six games and Jan Zidek did not make the trip due to illness.

UP NEXT
 
The WCC Championships begin Thursday (March 3) at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The WCC will announce seeding, matchups and game times on Sunday.