SPOKANE, Wash. – Shots would not fall for the Pepperdine men's basketball team and the Waves struggled keeping #24 Gonzaga out of the paint, consequently falling 86-60 on Thursday evening in the Spokane Arena.
 
The Waves (0-1 WCC) fall to 7-9 on the season while the Zags (1-0 WCC) improve to 10-4. 
 
BIG WAVES

• Michael Ajayi (Kent, Wash./Pierce College) earned his ninth double-double of the season on 14 points and 14 boards to go with two assists and two blocks.
• Houston Mallette (Alameda, Calif./Pacifica Christian) led Pepperdine with 15 points and tacked on four rebounds and three assists.
• Ethan Anderson (Carson, Calif./USC/Wyoming) scored seven points on 3-of-4 field goal shooting while pulling down a rebound, four assists and a steal.
• Jevon Porter (Columbia, Mo./Father Tolton Catholic) contributed six points and three rebounds but shined defensively, accruing five steals.

 
KEY STATS

• Gonzaga outrebounded Pepperdine 41-31, but the Waves earned more offensive boards with 12 to the Zags' nine.
• The Waves caused 14 Bulldog turnovers but only converted 10 points off of Zags mistakes.
• The Zags poured in 44 points in the paint compared to Pepperdine's 18.

 
RECAP
Led by Graham Ike, the Zags capitalized on less-than-ideal Pepperdine shooting numbers in the first half. The Waves could not keep the Gonzaga bigs out of the paint, resulting in 20 points from the same range for Gonzaga as well as 26 first-half boards though both teams were even in the o-board category in the first 20 minutes of play. Mallette ended a scoring drought for Pepperdine with three minutes to play on a pull-up three, but Gonzaga would go into the locker rooms with an 18-point advantage.
 
The Waves struck first in the second stanza on a Boubacar Coulibaly bump but the Zags stiff-armed Pepperdine through the majority of the game and stretched their lead to a game-high 35 with five to play. Cord Stansberry hit a corner three courtesy of Mallette and consecutively drained a jumper from a Jevon Porter steal to pull the lead to 25 with a minute and some change left in regulation for an 86-60 final.
 
UP NEXT
Pepperdine will return home to entice Santa Clara on Saturday evening in the latter half of a doubleheader with the women's team. The ladies will play LMU at 2 p.m. followed by the men at 7 p.m. in Firestone.