MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine men's basketball team invites #17 Saint Mary's to Malibu for its season finale Thursday night in an 8 p.m. CBS Sports Network tip-off.
 
GAME #31: Pepperdine (12-18, 5-10 WCC) vs Saint Mary's (23-6, 14-0 WCC) | Thursday, February 27 | Firestone Fieldhouse | 8 p.m. | CBS Sports Network
 
COVERAGE - Thursday's matchup will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network, which can be found on traditional cable networks as well as streaming services and online at CBSSports.com/Watch/CBS-Sports-Network. Listen live on the audio-only WaveCast as Pepperdine Hall of Famer Al Epstein continues his streak of 1,190-straight men's basketball broadcasts in his 39th season on the call.         
 
SENIOR NIGHT – Prior to tip-off, the Waves will celebrate graduate student Ethan Anderson in a Senior Night Recognition at halfcourt.
 
LAST TIME OUT - Pepperdine split games last week on the road, taking an 89-70 win at Pacific and falling 92-68 at San Francisco. Michael Ajayi recorded double-doubles in both contests while Jevon Porter averaged 19.5 points and 6.0 boards, going .591 from the field.
 
AJAYI ON THE DOUBLE - Ajayi recorded back-to-back double-doubles last week in a 30-point, 17-rebound outbreak at Pacific and a 12-point, 10-rebound effort at San Francisco for his 14th and 15th double-doubles of the season. His most recent double-outing moved him up the Pepperdine single-season leaderboard to third all-time– tied with Dana Jones (1993-94) and Stacy Davis (2015-16)– and now leads the conference in such instances, edging out USF's Jonathan Mogbo (14).
 
PORTER POWER – Sophomore Jevon Porter comes off of a stellar debut season where he started all 31 games for the Waves. Porter shocked the league in double-doubles as well, becoming the only freshman to accrue one and ending the season with eight total. Now since his return from injury, the sophomore has averaged 15.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and earned a season-high 26 points against Pacific on January 11 as well as his first double-double of the year against LMU on January 20 with 24 points and 12 boards.
 
MALLETTE MADNESS - The Waves' leader on and off the court, Houston Mallette sits third on the Pepperdine season box score in scoring, pouring in 15 points per game. The junior is also sixth in the WCC in the same category and in three-pointers per game with 2.2. Mallette has totaled 1,291 points in his three years in Malibu.
 
SPARKPLUG STANSBERRY – Redshirt-freshman Cord Stansberry has earned a reputation as the team's energy supplier after entering games and immediately providing a spark. Against USF, Stansberry hit two dagger threes in the first half to keep Pepperdine close with the Dons while the guard took matters into his own hands against LMU, scoring eight points in consecutive offensive plays capitalized by a steal and breakaway dunk. Since then, Stansberry has averaged a .482 clip from field goal range and .395 from beyond the arc.
 
WAVES VS WCC - Michael Ajayi currently ranks in the top five of four different categories in the conference: First in scoring (17.5 PPG), second in rebounding (9.5 RPG) and fourth in field goal percentage (.466) and fourth in minutes (34.3 MPG). Houston Mallette also ranks in the top 10 for the following WCC categories: Fifth in scoring (15.0 PPG) and sixth in threes per game (2.2) as well as fourth in free-throw percentage (.817) and eighth in field goal percentage (.432). As a team, the Waves shoot 36.2% from beyond the arc which is good for first in the conference and pull down an average of 10.1 offensive boards for fourth in the league.
 
ON THE GAELS - At 17th in the nation, Saint Mary's has rolled through WCC play at a clean 14-0 while going 23-6 on the season. The Gaels have been winning by a margin of 16.4 points while taking an 11.9-rebound advantage over their opponents each contest. Three Gaels average double-figures in Aidan Mahaney (13.9), Augustas Marciulionis (12.3) and Mitchell Saxen (11.6) while Saxen also leads the squad in rebounds at 7.6 per game. Last time out against Saint Mary's, Marciulionis delivered 28 points on 11-of-16 field goal shooting and Alex Ducas put together 18 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting to defeat the Waves 103-59 in Moraga. For Pepperdine, Porter, Ajayi and Mallette led the Waves with 13, 11 and 10 points respectively and the team could not shoot itself out of a rut in the loss.
 
UP NEXT – Pepperdine will travel to Las Vegas for the 2024 Credit Union 1 WCC Tournament, where they will likely play Friday evening depending on other results throughout the league.