LAS VEGAS - The Pepperdine men's basketball team treks to Las Vegas this week to commence play in the 2024 Credit Union 1 WCC Championship's first round, set for a bout with Pacific at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
 
FIRST ROUND: #8 Pepperdine (12-19, 5-11 WCC) vs #9 Pacific (6-25, 0-16 WCC) | Thursday, Mar. 7 | Orleans Arena | Las Vegas, Nev. | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN+
 
COVERAGE - The first two games of the WCC Tournament will stream live on ESPN+ and will move to the ESPN family of broadcast networks from the from the quarterfinals to the championship. Listen live on the audio-only WaveCast as Pepperdine Hall of Famer Al Epstein continues his streak of 1,191-straight men's basketball broadcasts in his 39th season on the call.
 
WCC RECOGNITION - Michael Ajayi, Houston Mallette and Jevon Porter were awarded All-West Coast Conference honors for the 2023-24 season, the league announced Tuesday. Ajayi earned All-WCC first team status as Mallette and Porter were recognized on the honorable mention squad.
 
AJAYI ON THE DOUBLE - Ajayi recorded back-to-back double-doubles two weeks ago 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.
 
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 15.8 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 14.7 points per game. The junior is also fifth in the WCC in the same category and seventh in three-pointers per game with 2.1. Mallette has totaled 1,295 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 .489 clip from field goal range and .404 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 (17.2 PPG), second in rebounding (9.5 RPG) and fourth in field goal percentage (.461) and fourth in minutes (34.5 MPG). Houston Mallette also ranks in the top 10 for the following WCC categories: Fifth in scoring (15.0 PPG) and seventh in threes per game (2.1) as well as fourth in free-throw percentage (.817). As a team, the Waves shoot 36.2% from beyond the arc which is good for second in the conference and pull down an average of 10 offensive boards for fourth in the league.