Porter's 28 lead Pepperdine over Pacific in WCC Tournament 102-43, led 56-9 at half

PARADISE, Nev. -- — Jevon Porter had 28 points in Pepperdine's 102-43 rout of Pacific on Thursday night in the open game of the West Coast Conference Tournament.

The eighth-seeded Waves advance to face fifth-seeded San Diego in the second round Friday.

The Waves scored the first 26 points of the game and led 56-9 at halftime after shooting 69% to 11% for the Tigers, who lost their 17th straight game. Pacific’s last win came in its final nonconference game, 80-66 over Cal Maritime.

Both programs will have new head coaches next season. Pacific fired Leonard Perry after the Tigers completed the regular season. Pepperdine has announced that Lorenzo Romar will not be back to lead the Waves after their season concludes.

Porter added 11 rebounds for the Waves (12-19). Michael Ajayi scored 21 points while going 8 of 13 from the floor, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and 4 for 6 from the line and added 17 rebounds. Malik Moore went 6 of 8 from the field (3 for 4 from 3-point range) to finish with 15 points.

Judson Martindale led the Tigers (6-25, 0-1) in scoring, finishing with 12 points and two blocks. Nicquel Blake added eight points, five assists and two steals for Pacific. Donovan Williams finished with six points. The loss is the 16th in a row for the Tigers.

Pepperdine took the lead with 19:43 remaining in the first half and did not give it up. Porter led their team in scoring with 14 points in the first half to help put them up 56-9 at the break. Pepperdine outscored Pacific in the second half by 12 points, with Porter scoring a team-high 14 points after the break.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.