LAS VEGAS – After upsetting three higher seeds, two top-85 teams in the NET and rewriting a plethora of personal bests, the 2024-25 Pepperdine men's basketball season came to an end by the hands of top-seeded and 21^st-ranked Saint Mary's in the WCC Tournament semifinals Monday night.
 
The Waves complete their first campaign under head coach Ed Schilling at 13-22 overall and 4-14 in conference play.
 
BIG WAVES

• Moe Odum (Bronx, N.Y./Pacific) scored 19 points on 8-of-16 field goal shooting to go with four rebounds and three assists. He sits atop the WCC Tournament record book for total assists with 37.
• Stefan Todorovic (Belgrade, Serbia/SMU/USF) contributed 10 points, three rebounds and an assist.
• Boubacar Coulibaly (Bamako, Mali/USC) added on nine points, six boards, a block and an assist.

 
KEY STATS

• Rebounds were the deciding factor Monday night as SMC won the battle of the boards 45-22 while earning 15 offensive rebounds to the Waves' seven. The Gaels turned their O-boards into 17 second-chance points while Pepperdine had only five.
• The Waves did fare better from three-point range, shooting 28% to SMC's 15% but the Gaels enjoyed 46 points from inside the paint.
• Pepperdine committed one less turnover than Saint Mary's (7-8) and earned more off of Gael errors (18-12).

 
RECAP
Saint Mary's controlled the paint early, but Stefan Todorovic hit a quick three to tie the game in the first few minutes while back-to-back Moe Odum treys put Pepperdine up by five. Unfortunately for the Waves, SMC embarked on a 12-1 run over the next three minutes as fouls plagued the good guys. In fact, five of the Gaels' last nine points came from the charity stripe, but Pepperdine used its fastbreak opportunities to bring the Saint Mary's lead back to 10 at the halftime buzzer, 39-29.
 
The Waves showed the wearing evidence of the past three days in the second half however, as Saint Mary's put the clamps down defensively and prevented any Pepperdine comeback attempt. The Gaels would end the game on a 14-2 run as the Waves fell 74-59 to end the 2024-25 season.
 
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