PORTLAND, Ore. – The Pepperdine men's basketball team led at the half but fell at Portland 87-67 Thursday evening.
 
BIG WAVES

• Dovydas Butka (Panevezys, Lithuania) led the Waves with 18 points while earning five boards, an assist and two steals.
• Stefan Todorovic (Belgrade, Serbia/SMU/USF) added on 12 points with a team-high seven rebounds to go with three assists, a block and a steal.
• Boubacar Coulibaly (Bamako, Mali/USC) also scored 12 points, pulling down four boards and dishing out two assists.

 
KEY STATS

• Both teams shot similar percentages but Portland made nine threes to the Waves' five and earned 16 points (16-17) from the charity stripe to Pepperdine's six (6-7).
• Portland won the rebound battle at a rate of 42-31 but the Waves had more points from inside, going for 42 to UP's 38.

 
RECAP
Pepperdine began the scoring early as a Stefan Todorovic jumper got the Waves going. In fact, Todorovic and Dovydas Butka had the team's first 11 points until Danilo Dozic joined the fun and tacked on a putback bump to put Pepperdine up 13-7 in the first six minutes. Butka continued his reign of the paint on the way to 13 first-half points but Portland would pull back within four after a 10-0 run that slimmed the Waves' lead heading into halftime at a 37-33 advantage.
 
The Pilots rode their momentum into the second half, scoring first out of the locker rooms. Pepperdine stretched its slim lead to six but another nine-point run gave Portland the lead four minutes into the latter stanza. UP's Austin Rapp went on a 6-0 run by himself at the midway point and extended the Pilots' lead to 10 at the under-eight media timeout. The Portland advantage snowballed from that point on, but a three from the wing and a scoop-and-score monster dunk from Jaxon Olvera lit up the Pepperdine bench. The Pilots ended the game with a 20-point advantage on a last second three and won 87-67.
 
UP NEXT
Pepperdine returns to Malibu Saturday to take on Washington State and honor four seniors– Boubacar Coulibaly, Alonso Faure, Alex Leiba and Stefan Todorovic– prior to the 7 p.m. tip-off.
 
STAY CONNECTED
Keep up with all things Pepperdine hoops by following the team on X and Instagram and find more about Waves Athletics via @PepperdineWaves on all platforms.