Tyon Grant-Foster’s former teammate Styles Phipps leading Pepperdine in three categories | Key matchup

It’s a roll of the dice trying to predict who will lead Pepperdine in scoring on a given night.

Aaron Clark and Styles Phipps have each paced the Waves six times while Javon Cooley’s done it on five more occasions. Ed Schilling has four player s averaging double figures, with none of them scoring fewer than 10.9 points but none scoring more than 12.5.

There’s a solid chance it’ll be Phipps leading the Waves in two other major categories when Pepperdine (6-14, 1-6) visits No. 8 Gonzaga (19-1, 7-0) Wednesday at McCarthey Athletic Center (6 p.m., KHQ/ESPN+) for potentially the last meeting between the schools in West Coast Conference play.

Phipps (12.5 ppg) is narrowly edging Cooley (12.3) for the scoring lead at the moment but Tyon Grant-Foster’s former Grand Canyon teammate is also pacing Pepperdine in rebounds (6.4 rpg) and assists (4.8 apg) through seven WCC games.

The 6-foot-2 point guard from Phoenix has been the Waves’ assists leader in 16 of 20 games and he’s led them in rebounds on eight occasions, with no fewer than six boards in the team’s last four games.

Phipps opened WCC play with three single-digit scoring games, including a six-point, seven-rebound effort against Gonzaga that saw him shoot just 1 of 8 from the field, but the sophomore has turned things around since then. Phipps has hit double figures in the last four games, averaging 16.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg during that stretch.

The first-year Pepperdine player appeared in 20 games last season for Grand Canyon before teaming up with Schilling, a former Antelopes assistant who helped recruit Phipps to the Western Athletic Conference program based in his hometown of Phoenix.

Grant-Foster, who’s averaging 11.3 ppg and 5.0 rpg for Gonzaga, has a chance to improve to 4-0 in games against his former GCU teammates on Wednesday. Grant-Foster had 18 points and a career-high four blocks in a 96-56 victory against Phipps and Schilling, who was a member of the 2023-24 staff at GCU when the first-year Zag won WAC Player of the Year honors.

Thanks to Gonzaga’s result against Seattle U at Climate Pledge Arena, Grant-Foster is also 2-0 against Austin Maurer, a starting center for the Redhawks who played at GCU in 2024-25.

Phipps and Grant-Foster may not see a lot of each other on the floor in Wednesday’s tilt. Gonzaga point guard Braeden Smith picked up Phipps in the first game between the teams and, based on his success in the last meeting, is the leading candidate to do it again. That’s provided he gets the start over Mario Saint-Supery, who led the Zags in scoring with 20 points against Seattle U.