GAME #28 – Pepperdine (9-18) vs #13 Gonzaga (21-5) | Saturday, Feb. 18 | Malibu, Calif. | Bally Sports Network | 4 p.m. 
 

PEPPERDINE WAVES	#13 GONZAGA BULLDOGS
2022-23 Record: 9-18     WCC Record: 2-11     Home Record: 8-6 Head Coach: Lorenzo Romar Website: PepperdineWaves.com Twitter: @PeppBasketball	2022-23 Record: 21-5     WCC Record: 10-2     Away Record: 5-2 Head Coach: Mark Few Website: gozags.com Twitter: @ZagMBB

SATURDAY PROMOS – WEAR ORANGE! Students will receive FREE orange t-shirts with none other than Willie the Wave plastered on them and everyone in attendance will receive an Alfred Coffee coupon with the Waves' first steal of the game.

WATCH — Bally Sports Network will broadcast the game on all regional channels, and the WCC Network will stream the game online for those outside of Bally's reach. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein will have the call on WaveCasts.

SURF REPORT
• After going 1-1 last week, the Pepperdine men's basketball team invites 13th-ranked Gonzaga to Malibu on Saturday afternoon. 
• Sophomores Houston Mallette, Maxwell Lewis, and Mike Mitchell Jr. make up over half (52.6%) of the Waves' scoring output.
• Lewis leads the Waves, contributing 17.6 points per contest as well as shooting 48.4% from field goal range. The forward is also Pepperdine's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 5.8 boards per contest.
• Freshman Jevon Porter has accrued seven double-doubles – including a stretch of three straight – in his debut season, averaging 11.9 points and 7.3 boards as the team's leading rebounder.    
• Mitchell Jr. leads the Waves in three-point percentage, shooting 43% from beyond the arc while also averaging 11.1 points per game. The sophomore has totaled 119 assists on the season, good for 4.9 per game.                                                                                                                                
• Among fellow WCC schools, Carson Basham sits second in the league in blocked shots per game with 1.2 rejections and is fourth in field goal percentage at 58%. Lewis is fourth on the scoring-average list and Mitchell sits second on the assists leaderboard. As a team, the Waves are first in blocks per game (4), second in field goal percentage (46.2) and third in defensive rebounds per contest (26.7).
• 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.

WAVES' WEEKLY AWARDS
Jevon Porter was most recently awarded WCC Freshman of the Week (2/13) after collecting a career-high 30 points and pulling down 10 boards–his seventh and third-straight double-double– in Pepperdine's 12-point win over BYU last Thursday. The forward shot 71.4% from the field and 60% from beyond the arc while snatching two steals on the other end. At San Francisco, Porter delivered 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds while going for a spotless 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.

Porter and Lewis were both honored by the conference back in December (12/27) as the sophomore forward earned the Player of the Week award and Porter achieved his first FOTW honor. 

PORTER POWER
The Columbia, Mo.-native is the only freshman in the conference to have recorded a double-double, and his seven total are good for third on the most games with a double-double list after Eric Williams Jr. of USD (10), Brandin Podziemski of SCU (8) and tied with Mitchell Saxen of Saint Mary's (7) and Gonzaga's Drew Timme (7). 

SCOUTING THE ZAGS
Gonzaga's two conference losses both featured down-to-the-wire games, falling to LMU in Spokane 68-67 and to #18 Saint Mary's in Moraga at 78-70 in overtime. Since then, the Zags have won out with a 99-81 win against San Francisco and another nail-biter against BYU finishing at 88-81. 

The Waves and Bulldogs squared off in Spokane for the first conference contest of the season, resulting in an 111-88 loss for Pepperdine. Drew Timme led the Zags with 35 points and 10 rebounds, followed by Julian Strawther with 22 points on 50% three-point shooting. For the Waves, Lewis led with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, followed by Porter with 17 and seven and Basham with 17 and four. Mitchell Jr. contributed 13 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

NEXT UP
The Waves will split home and away next week, heading to Santa Clara on Thursday and returning home for the 2022-23 regular season finale and Senior Day on Saturday, inviting LMU to Firestone.