GAME #22 – Pepperdine (7-16) at Pacific (11-12) | Thursday, Feb. 2 | Stockton, Calif. | WCC Network | 7 p.m. 

GAME #23 – Pepperdine (7-16) vs Portland (11-13) | Saturday, Feb. 4 | Malibu, Calif. | WCC Network | 5 p.m.
 

PACIFIC TIGERS	PORTLAND PILOTS
2022-23 Record: 11-12     WCC Record: 4-4     Home Record: 4-9 Head Coach: Leonard Perry Website: pacifictigers.com Twitter: @PacificMensBB	2022-23 Record: 11-13     WCC Record: 3-6     Away Record: 1-7 Head Coach: Shantay Legans Website: portlandpilots.com Twitter: @PortlandMBB

PROMOS – Saturday's game will be the back end of a double-header, as the Pepperdine women's basketball team takes on Pacific at 1 p.m. The men's game will also host students, faculty and staff from the Caruso School of Law on Saturday night, and the first 100 students in Firestone will receive a FREE Waves replica jersey.

BILL RUSSELL RECOGNITION WEEK - The WCC will honor the life and legacy of USF legend Bill Russell during men's and women's basketball games as the conference celebrates Bill Russell Recognition Week. Student-athletes from all 20 men's and women's basketball programs will wear a shirt representing Russell's famous No. 6 during pregame activities for conference contests on Feb. 2 and 4. A tribute video honoring Russell's legacy, both on and off the court, will air prior to each game and the Conference will recognize Russell and Black History Month on its digital platforms and broadcasts.

WATCH — WCCSports.com will stream both games this week. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein will be on the call via Wavecasts for Thursday's matchup and on the stream on Saturday.

SURF REPORT
• Pepperdine men's basketball splits the week once again, heading to Stockton to face Pacific on Thursday and then returning home to entice Portland in Firestone 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 18.7 points per contest as well as shooting 50.2% from field goal range. The forward is also Pepperdine's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 5.9 boards per contest.
• Mitchell Jr. leads the Waves in three-point percentage, shooting 43.1% from beyond the arc while also averaging 10.9 points per game. The sophomore has totaled 102 assists on the season, good for 4.9 per game.
• Freshman Jevon Porter is the squad's leading rebounder, gathering 6.8 boards per contest while also averaging double figures in the scoring column at 10.7 points per game. Porter has accrued the most double-doubles on the roster this season, collecting four as a freshman.                                                                                                                                       
• Among fellow WCC schools, Carson Basham leads the league in blocked shots per game with 1.3 rejections and is fifth in field goal percentage at 56.2%. Lewis is fourth on the scoring list and Mitchell sits second on the assists leaderboard just behind Tyler Robertson of Portland. As a team, the Waves are second behind BYU in blocks per game (4.1), fourth in field goal percentage (45.9) and third in defensive rebounds per contest (27).
• 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 TIGERS
Against Pacific in Malibu on January 7, sophomore Maxwell Lewis recorded his first double-double of the season on 30 points and a career-high 14 rebounds but the Waves fell 80-75 after a back-and-forth game. Judson Martindale led the way for the Tigers, scoring 19 points and collecting eight rebounds. Moe Odum and Tyler Beard followed suit, each contributing 11 points and four and three rebounds respectively. Pepperdine was able to tame Pacific's two top scorers, however, limiting Keylan Boone (12.8 ppg) and Luke Avdalovic (10.4 ppg) to 10 and seven points, respectively.

The Tigers are coming off a cool 95-89 victory at Santa Clara last Saturday with Boone and Avdalovic exploding for 27 and 23 points, respectively. Pacific out-shot the Broncos 54.8% to 29.6% from three-point land and came up with the win despite SCU's Brandin Podziemski posting 38 points and nine boards.

SCOUTING THE PILOTS 
Last time out in Portland on January 21, Pepperdine saw four players in double figures and won the rebounding battle 35-25, but the Waves fell behind 27 points in the first half and couldn't make up the ground for a 91-76 defeat. Freshman Jevon Porter collected his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Portland shot 71.4% from beyond the arc in the first half as the majority of the team's points came from that range.

The Pilots' most recent action came at home against #14 Gonzaga where the game was close for most of the second half, but the Zags' Julian Strawther poured in 40 points to give Gonzaga an 82-67 win on Saturday. It was the usual suspects who led Portland as Moses Wood dropped 19 points on 5-for-8 three-point shooting and Tyler Robertson scored 10 on 66.7% from long range.