Men's Basketball Tips Off WCC Tournament Thursday

PEPPERDINE WAVES	PACIFIC TIGERS
2022-23 Record: 9-21 WCC Record: 2-14 Head Coach: Lorenzo Romar Website: PepperdineWaves.com Twitter: @PeppBasketball	2022-23 Record: 14-17 WCC Record: 7-9 Head Coach: Leonard Perry Website: pacifictigers.com Twitter: @PacificMensBB

WATCH — The first and second rounds will be broadcasted on the Bally Sports family of networks, as well as by both BYUtv and WCCsports.com – with no geo-restrictions. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein will have the call as well on WaveCasts.

SURF REPORT
• The Pepperdine men's basketball team will head to Las Vegas for the first round of the 2023 UCU WCC Tournament, tipping off against Pacific.
• Sophomores Houston Mallette, Maxwell Lewis and Mike Mitchell Jr. make up over half (51.7%) of the Waves' scoring output.
• Lewis leads the Waves, contributing 17.1 points per contest as well as shooting 46.8% from field goal range. The forward is also Pepperdine's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 5.6 boards per contest.
• Freshman Jevon Porter has accrued eight double-doubles – good for third in the conference – in his debut season, averaging 12.1 points and 7.3 boards as the team's leading rebounder.
• Mitchell Jr. leads the Waves in three-point percentage, shooting 44.2% from beyond the arc while also averaging 11.5 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 1.2 rejections and is fourth in field goal percentage at 57.6%. Lewis is sixth 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 points per game (78.2) after only Gonzaga, second in field goal percentage (46.4) and third in defensive rebounds per contest (26.5).
• 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
In two double-digit scoring outings last week, Porter amassed his eighth-total double-double at Santa Clara and remains the only freshman in the conference to have achieved that feat – good enough to earn the WCC's last Freshman of the Week award of the season. The Columbia, Mo. native averaged 12 points, 8.5 boards and 1.5 blocks on the week, and is quickly moving up on the team leaderboard in scoring, averaging 12.1 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds. He is currently second in the WCC for offensive rebounds during the conference season at 40 total so far. Porter is the only freshman in the conference to have recorded a double-double, and his eight total are good for third on the most games with a double-double list after Brandin Podziemski of SCU (12) and Eric Williams Jr. of USD (10).

TOURNEY TIME
Under Romar, the Waves are 5-4 in the WCC Tournament, as Pepperdine's career scoring and assists leader Colbey Ross was named to the all-tournament teams three years in a row (2019, '20, '21). The Waves reached the semifinals in both 2019 and 2021, falling in close contests to Gonzaga (78-74) and BYU (77-72, OT) in respective years. The 2019 run saw Pepperdine begin its uphill battle as the eight seed in the first round of play, besting Pacific, LMU and San Francisco to face off against the Zags in the semis. The Waves have won three WCC Tournaments in 1991, '92 and '94, all under head coach Tom Asbury.

THE STREAK
Pepperdine owns the West Coast Conference record for most consecutive league victories. The Waves recorded 38 straight triumphs against WCC foes with 32 coming in the regular season and six in the WCC Tournament contests. Pepperdine lost the first game of the 1991 conference slate but rolled to a 13-1 record, posted an unblemished 1992 league season (14-0) and won its second straight WCC Tournament Championship. The Waves won their first five games of the 1993 campaign before suffering a home loss to San Francisco. The streak started Jan. 12, 1991 and ended Jan. 29, 1993.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Pacific finished the regular season at 14-17, going 7-9 in WCC play. Throughout their conference campaign, the Tigers earned wins over LMU and Santa Clara, who both finished in the top half of the conference standings. Most recently, UOP defeated Portland 81-77 for the seventh-place seed in the tournament, where six Tigers achieved double-digit scoring.

During the Waves and Tigers' two meetings this season, Lewis saw a 30-point, 14-rebound outing in the first bout and led the team again in the second match, going for 19 points and five boards. Porter earned his fifth of eight double-doubles, contributing 12 points and 11 rebounds. Pepperdine went 0-2 against Pacific this season, but both decisions were by less than 10 points and featured multiple lead changes.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Carson Basham

Maxwell Lewis

Houston Mallette

Mike Mitchell Jr.

Jevon Porter

Footer