SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Pepperdine men's basketball team erased a 19-point deficit with a 16-0 run late in the second half, but the Waves were stymied by San Diego 92-89 on Thursday night.  
 
BIG WAVES

• Freshman Jevon Porter (Columbia, Mo./Father Tolton Catholic) led the Waves with 21 points, adding on four rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
• Sophomore Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Arch Bishop Mitty HS) dropped 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting as well as 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.  He also pulled down four boards and dished out five assists.
• Sophomore Carson Basham (Phoenix, Ariz./AZ Compass Prep) contributed big minutes with 15 points, eight boards and two blocked shots.
• Sophomore Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) also put in 13 points on the night with four rebounds, a steal and an assist.
• Freshman Malik Moore (Ventura, Calif./Heritage Christian) had a career-high 11 points to go with four rebounds and two assists.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Waves played catch-up for most of the first half, as the Toreros got on the board first and Pepperdine could not cross the threshold. Porter was unstoppable out of the gates, taking it to San Diego in the paint for his first six points including a bucket-and-a-foul off of a turnaround jumper. The Toreros took off on a 7-0 run in the second half of the first period for a Waves deficit of 11. From there, Pepperdine could not bring the lead under eight points, heading into the locker room at a score of 49-39 in favor of USD.
Pepperdine kept chopping back the USD lead in the second half but the Toreros would record two buckets for every Waves answer. Turnovers plagued the Waves as well, leading to the largest deficit of the game at 19 with seven minutes to go. Pepperdine switched on the burners and enjoyed a 16-0 run capitalized by three consecutive fastbreak layups courtesy of Moore and Porter to bring the Waves within three with two and a half minutes left to play. San Diego stiff-armed the Pepperdine defense, however, going back up seven with 25 seconds on the clock to ultimately doom the Waves, as Moore sunk a three at the buzzer for a 92-89 final.

KEY STATS

• The Waves accrued 25 total fastbreak points – 10 more than the Toreros.
• Pepperdine fared better shooting-wise, going 56% and 38% from field goal and three point range in comparison to USD's 53% and 37%.
• San Diego out-rebounded the Waves 37-34.

UP NEXT
The Waves head to Provo, Utah to take on BYU in the Marriott Center for the penultimate conference matchup for the two teams. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv with a 7 p.m. tip on Saturday, with veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein on the call on WaveCasts.