GAME #20 – Pepperdine (7-12) vs #24 Saint Mary's (16-4) | Thursday, Jan. 19 | Malibu, Calif. | ESPNU | 8 p.m. 
 
GAME #21 – Pepperdine (7-12) at Portland (9-11) | Saturday, Jan. 21 | Portland, Ore. | Root/Bally Sports | 3 p.m.
 
PROMOS – Students will receive a FREE t-shirt courtesy of Pirnia Law with the presentation of a Pepperdine ID.
 
WATCH — ESPNU will broadcast the Thursday game against Saint Mary's beginning at 8 p.m. in Firestone, with broadcasters Sean Farnham and Dave Flemming in the booth. In Portland, the Waves will be on Root Sports and Bally Sports with Ann Schatz and Jennifer Mountain on the call for those in-network and on WCCSports.com for those outside of the Western United States. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein will also have the call for both games on WaveCasts.
 
SURF REPORT
• The Pepperdine men's basketball team invites #24 Saint Mary's to Malibu on Thursday and then travels to Portland on Saturday.
• Sophomores Houston Mallette, Maxwell Lewis, and Mike Mitchell Jr. make up over half (53.4%) of the Waves scoring output.
• Lewis leads the Waves, contributing 19.6 points per contest as well as shooting 52.1% from field goal range. The forward is also Pepperdine's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 5.8 boards per contest.
• Mitchell Jr. leads the Waves in three-point percentage, shooting 45.8% from beyond the arc while also averaging 11.1 points per game. The sophomore has totaled 92 total assists on the season, averaging 4.8 per game.
• Freshman Jevon Porter is the squad's leading rebounder, gathering 6.9 boards per contest while also averaging double figures in the scoring column at 11.6 points per game.                                                                                                                                            
• Among fellow WCC schools, Carson Basham leads the league in blocked shots per game with 1.3 rejections per contest and is second in field goal percentage at 60.7%. Lewis is second on the scoring list, just behind Gonzaga's Drew Timme. As a team, the Waves are tied for first with BYU on blocks per game (4.4), second in field goal percentage (47.4) and third in defensive rebounds per contest (28.1).
• Lorenzo Romar is in his 26th season as a college head coach. It's his fifth season this time around at Pepperdine, and his eighth overall with the Waves. Romar will be inducted into the SoCal Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022.

SCOUTING THE GAELS
At a spotless 5-0 in conference play, 24th-ranked Saint Mary's enters Thursday's contest at 16-4 overall with losses to the top ranked team in the country at Houston and to a then-undefeated New Mexico squad in Moraga. One of the Gaels' most impressive wins came over #22 San Diego State in December, where SMC defeated the Aztecs 68-61 in Phoenix, Ariz. Freshman Aidan Mahaney leads the Gaels in scoring, going for 15.2 points per game while shooting 46.4% from the field. Big man Mitchell Saxon follows suit with 12.9 points per contest and a team-high 8.4 rebounds per game. Small forward Alex Ducas and point guard Logan Johnson fall into the last two double-digit scoring averages with 11.9 and 11.8 respectively. 

SCOUTING THE PILOTS
With a record that most similarly resembles Pepperdine's, the Pilots have recorded a 1-4 mark in WCC play with losses to LMU, BYU, Saint Mary's and Gonzaga, but earned a 92-87 win over San Francisco in Oregon. The Pilots had a gauntlet of a non-conference season, narrowly dropping to then-#1 North Carolina 89-81, defeating historically notable Villanova and then falling again to then-#12 Michigan State in the Phil Knight Invitational. Leading the way for UP is Tyler Robertson, averaging 14.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, followed by Moses Wood at 13.9 points and a team-high 6.2 boards. Sharpshooter Kristian Sjolund snipes from three-point range with a cool 52.5% from that range.