Several Pepperdine men's basketball players tell TMZ Sports they feared for their lives as the wildfires raged near their campus this weekend.
Flames have ravaged Southern California the past few days ... and when they crept up on Pepperdine's Malibu campus Friday ... students were forced to flee to the school's gym before they ultimately evacuated.
Pepperdine guard Jade' Smith says it was one of the most frightening things he's ever experienced.
"It was wild. It was crazy. It was honestly one of the scariest experiences of my life," Smith says.
"There was a point where they started to come around and it felt like they surrounded us almost.