Waves men’s hoops players Maxwell Lewis, Houston Mallette, and Mike Mitchell Jr. were named to the conference’s men’s All-Freshman squad, along with Pepperdine women’s basketball player Ally Stedman was named to WCC’s women’s All-Freshman team.
Mallette, in conference contests, was the top scorer among all WCC freshmen at 15.9 points a game. Lewis was the third top freshman scorer at 12.5, and Mitchell’s average of 9.9 placed him fifth.
Mallette averaged 13.6 points a contest throughout the Waves 32-game regular season. He swished a Pepperdine freshman-record 69 three-pointers and knocked down a triple in 26 consecutive contests before the Waves’ season ended last week in the first round of the WCC Tournament. Mallette scored in double figures in the last nine games of the season and tallied at least 20 points in five of the final seven, including a 31-point explosion against BYU. The guard was also named the WCC Freshman of the Week this season twice.
Lewis rang up 11 points a game this season until he suffered a season-ending wrist injury on Feb. 12. The forward scored in double figures seven times in WCC games, including a 26-point and 20-point outings versus Pacific. Lewis tallied double-figures in seven conference games.
Mitchell averaged 11 points a game throughout Pepperdine’s 2021-2022 campaign. The guard recorded his first-ever double-double in the Waves’ last contest—12 points and 10 rebounds—he also has eight assists. The rebound number was a career-high, and the assist tally tied a season-best. Mitchell averaged 4.6 assists a game during WCC play and handed out 148 assists total in the regular season, the second-most ever by a Waves freshman. He scored in double-figures seven times in WCC action, including a season-high 18 points against BYU, the regular-season finale. He was the only player to start all of Pepperdine’s games this year. Mitchell received the WCC Freshman of the Week award once this season.
Stedman, a guard, averaged 11 points a game this season. She swished in eight three-pointers during her 28-point performance against UCLA, Pepperdine’s first opponent of the year. Stedman started 24 of 25 games and scored in double figures in 12 of them. She led the team with 31 steals this season and was third in assists with 37.