GAME #29 – Pepperdine (9-19) at Santa Clara (21-8) | Thursday, Feb. 23 | Santa Clara, Calif. | WCC Network | 7 p.m. 

GAME #30 – Pepperdine (9-19) vs LMU (18-11) | Saturday, Feb. 25 | Malibu, Calif. | Bally Sports Network | 7:30 p.m. 

SANTA CLARA BRONCOS	LMU LIONS
2022-23 Record: 21-8     WCC Record: 9-5     Home Record: 13-4 Head Coach: Herb Sendek Website: scubroncos.com Twitter: @SantaClaraHoops	2022-23 Record: 18-11     WCC Record: 8-7     Away Record: 3-7 Head Coach: Stan Johnson Website: lmulions.com Twitter: @lmulionsMBB

SENIOR DAY – Before Saturday's 7:30 p.m. tip-off, Pepperdine will honor seniors Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic) and Majok Deng (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic HS). 

WATCH — Thursday's game will be streamed live on WCCsports.com, and Bally Sports Network will broadcast Saturday's contest. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein will have the call on WaveCasts for both games. 

SURF REPORT
• The Pepperdine men's basketball team will head to Santa Clara for a Thursday match-up before returning to Malibu to close out the 2022-23 regular season against LMU on Saturday.
• Sophomores Houston Mallette, Maxwell Lewis, and Mike Mitchell Jr. make up over half (52.7%) of the Waves' scoring output.
• Lewis leads the Waves, contributing 17.7 points per contest as well as shooting 48.1% from field goal range. The forward is also Pepperdine's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 5.7 boards per contest.
• Freshman Jevon Porter has accrued seven double-doubles – good for fourth in the conference– in his debut season, averaging 12.1 points and 7.2 boards as the team's leading rebounder.    
• Mitchell Jr. leads the Waves in three-point percentage, shooting 43.5% from beyond the arc while also averaging 11.4 points per game. The sophomore has totaled 138 assists on the season, good for 4.9 per game.                                                                                                                                
• Among fellow WCC schools, Carson Basham is first in the league in blocked shots per game with 1.3 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 (3.9), second in field goal percentage (46.4) and third in defensive rebounds per contest (26.6).
• 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.

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 fourth on the most games with a double-double list after Eric Williams Jr. of USD (10), Brandin Podziemski of SCU (10) and Mitchell Saxen of Saint Mary's (8).

SCOUTING THE BRONCOS
Sitting at 21-8 overall, Santa Clara is currently third in the conference standings behind Saint Mary's and Gonzaga. In addition to losses against those two WCC powerhouses, the Broncos fell in a wild 95-89 result to Pacific at the Leavey Center. SCU recently swept BYU this conference season for the first time since 1961-62 with an 81-74 victory over the Cougars in Provo. Sophomore Brandin Podziemski leads the Broncos with 19.5 points per game and 8.4 rebounds, and is tied with Eric Williams Jr. of USD for most double-doubles in the conference at 10. 

During the Waves and Broncos last meeting in January, Podziemski dropped 27 and 10, followed by Parker Braun with 16. The Waves fared better than SCU beyond the arc, going 47.1% to 36.4% but Pepperdine couldn't keep the Broncos out of the paint for a final result of 89-79.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
After what was arguably the Lions' biggest win, LMU invited #15 Saint Mary's to Gersten Pavilion and took a 78-74 overtime win over the Gaels for its second ranked win of the season. The Lions then traveled to Santa Clara and fell 71-69 in another close contest before falling again at home to #13 Gonzaga 108-65. In the Lions' most recent win over Pacific, Cam Shelton scored 40 points on 61.9% field goal shooting earning him last week's WCC Player of the Week award. Shelton leads the team in scoring with 20.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, followed by Keli Leaupepe at 13.4 points and seven boards per contest.

In January when the Waves traveled to a packed Gersten Pavilion, Shelton contributed 26 points as Justin Ahrens finished with 18, going 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. Pepperdine saw an off shooting night which resulted in an 84-70 loss, but Lewis poured in 21 points and seven boards, followed by Mitchell Jr. with 13 points, four assists and two steals.

NEXT UP
The Waves will head to Las Vegas for the 2023 University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament next week, beginning play on Thursday evening.