STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pepperdine men's basketball team held its lead over Pacific throughout the entire 40 minutes and saw career-bests from
Michael Ajayi and
Malik Moore as the Waves rolled to an 89-70 win in Stockton Wednesday night.
Pepperdine (12-17, 5-9 WCC) overwhelmed the Tigers in the Waves' third win in five outings. Ajayi earned his 14
th double-double, which moved him up the Pepperdine single-season leaderboard to fifth, tying Dana Jones (1992-93).
BIG WAVES
- Michael Ajayi (Kent, Wash./Pierce College) nearly matched his career-high in scoring, delivering 30 points on a .571 field goal clip while missing just one of his 14 free throw opportunities. The junior did, however, record a new career best in his rebounding effort, going for 17 total boards. He rounded out his night with three assists and three steals.
- Malik Moore (Ventura, Calif./Heritage Christian) also recorded a career-high in scoring, earning 20 points, hitting 14 of those in the second half.
- Jevon Porter (Columbia, Mo./Father Tolton Catholic) rounded out the double-digit scorers with 16 points on 60% field goal shooting while adding seven boards, four assists and a steal.
KEY STATS
- The Waves out-rebounded Pacific 45-30 and earned more second-chance points but the Tigers won the paint offensively, going 42-32.
- Pepperdine enjoyed one of its best nights from the free throw line, shooting 84.6%, and held Pacific to a 30% three-point shooting mark and 41.9% from the field.
RECAP
The Waves won the opening tip, Ajayi put in a layup to put Pepperdine up 2-0 and the Waves never looked back from there as they would rule the entire 40 minutes of play on Wednesday night. The Tigers controlled two of their four first-half offensive boards in just the opening two minutes but Pepperdine shut down any rebounding effort from Pacific as time went on. Mallette hit back-to-back shots– a three on the fastbreak and a long jumper– to jump out to a 9-1 lead and snowballed into a 16-5 run that landed the good guys midway through the opening stanza. Porter ruled the paint, scoring 10 points from that range and Ajayi recorded a 21-point, 10-rebound double-double well before halftime on 7-for-11 field goal shooting and a spotless 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. The Waves rolled to their largest lead of the first 20 minutes just before the buzzer at a 21-point advantage and headed into the locker rooms at a 46-25 intermission score.
Pacific enjoyed a slight run to open the second half, but Moore shot lights out to keep the Tigers at bay. An
Ethan Anderson floater would give Pepperdine its largest lead of the game at 57-31 as Ajayi muscled the ball into the bucket from inside and Moore kept up his onslaught of dagger threes and step-back jumpers all the way to the three-minute mark. Head coach
Lorenzo Romar would empty the Waves' bench as redshirt freshman
David Mager and true freshman
Curtis Williams delivered threes to put the final score at 89-68.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine heads to nearby San Francisco for its last road conference matchup to take on the Dons Saturday at 7 p.m.
