Box Score MALIBU, Calif. – Through 50 minutes of play, the Pepperdine men's basketball team earned its first conference win of the season on a
Jevon Porter buzzer-beater, going 94-93 in double overtime over Portland on Saturday evening.
Finishing with 18 points and 11 rebounds, Porter recorded Pepperdine's first consecutive double-doubles since current Brooklyn Nets player Kessler Edwards achieved the feat in 2021.
After the end of regulation, the game was tied at 70-all. Houston Mallette dominated the first five minutes of extra time, lighting up for an 8-0 run of his own starting with a turnaround jumper. The sophomore accrued 10 of the Waves' 12 of the first overtime period, but Meadows again tied the game, draining a three with nine seconds left to play to even the score at 82-all.
The Waves needed just five more minutes to steal the win, however things were not looking too hot for Pepperdine in the first three minutes following a 7-0 Pilots run. Portland went up five for its biggest lead of the period, but graduate student Jay Yoon (Arcadia, Calif./Arcadia HS) came off the bench as the Waves entered foul trouble and sank a reverse layup and was fouled for a potential three-point play. The charity shot would not fall, but
Jalen Pitre (Long Beach, Calif./Woodstock Academy) was fouled on the rebound and fouled the Portland player as well with .6 seconds left in the game. The Pilots would go one-for-two, followed by another one-of-two sequence at the line for the Waves, pushing the score to 93-92 in favor of Portland. With less than a second left to play, Pepperdine received the ball out-of-bounds under its own basket, and
Mike Mitchell Jr. tossed up a beauty of a lob to Porter on the block as the freshman was able to put the shot in before the buzzer for a 94-93 Waves win.
BIG WAVES
- Sophomore Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian HS) led the Waves with 25 points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal.
- Freshman Jevon Porter (Columbia, Mo./Father Tolton Catholic) accrued his sixth double-double of the season and second-consecutive, going for 18 points on 50% FG shooting, 11 boards, five assists, a block and the game-winning shot.
- Sophomore Carson Basham (Phoenix, Ariz./AZ Compass Prep) tied his career-high in scoring and rebounds with 18 points, going 8-for-12 from the field and nine rebounds, as well as two steals and a block.
- Sophomore Maxwell Lewis (Las Vegas, Nev./AZ Compass Prep) finished with 12 gritty points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.
- Sophomore Mike Mitchell Jr. (San Jose, Calif./Arch Bishop Mitty HS) contributed 11 points and six rebounds, as well as five assists – that included the pass to Porter for the buzzer-beater.
PLAY-BY-PLAY
The night started off about the same as Pepperdine's previous outings- a slow start, giving Portland a 9-0 run out of the gates. Mitchell Jr. got the Waves on the board first with a short jumper, but the two teams traded buckets until the latter half of the first period. Just under the eight-minute mark, Mallette hit Basham on a roll to the bucket to kick off what would be a 13-0 Pepperdine run, gifting the good guys their first lead of the game at 29-27, pushing to a 36-35 halftime score.
The Waves held off the Pilots for most of the second half, until Pepperdine went dry midway through and Mike Meadows completed a three-point play for Portland's first lead of that period at 60-59. The Waves would flirt with a one-to-two-point lead through the rest of the half, until a foul on the three-point line led to a trifecta of Portland free throws, sending the game into overtime at 70-all.
After two extra periods of play, the Waves ran away with the 94-93 win.
KEY STATS
- The Waves outshot the Pilots in both field goal percentage (44%-42%) and three point (31%-29%) percentage.
- Pepperdine also won the battle on the boards, gathering 46 rebounds to Portland's 43.
- The Waves dominated the paint, scoring 12 more than the Pilots from the lane (46-34).
- Pepperdine doubled up Portland's assists, dishing out 22 on the night.
- It was the first time in 21 years that the Waves (8-17, 1-10 WCC) came up with the win in a game with multiple overtimes, as Pepperdine last took a 116-110 win over Arkansas-Little Rock in 2002.
UP NEXT
The Waves will again split home and away next week, hosting BYU on Thursday night in Firestone and then heading to the Bay to take on San Francisco on Saturday. The game against the Cougars will be broadcast on CBS Sports and the USF contest will stream on the WCC Network with Al Epstein on WaveCasts both instances.
