Santa Clara Preview

Blowout loss to Gonzaga all but eliminates Broncos from NCAA at-large bid

Up until last night, while still not directly involved in most NCAA bracketology discussions, Santa Clara had started making a case for consideration, having won five of their past six games and, going into last night’s showdown with Gonzaga, the Broncos were #55 in the KenPom rankings. And the night started very well as Santa Clara knocked down their first 8 threes of the game and led by 8 late in the first half. Unfortunately, the Zags outscored Santa Clara 61-34 after that to defeat the Broncos easily, for all intents and purposes ending any case for a Santa Clara at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.

That said, Santa Clara still has something to play for as the Broncos look to shake off the Gonzaga loss. The Broncs (19-11, 11-6) are currently in a battle for fourth spot in the WCC regular season standings with Oregon State - finishing fourth would give the Broncos an immediate bye into the quarter finals of the WCC tournament. The fifth-place finisher plays the winner of the #8 vs. #9 game in a third-round game prior to the quarters - so one extra game. The Beavers (10-6) own the tiebreaker with Santa Clara but finish with a home game tonight vs. San Francisco and then at Saint Mary’s to close the regular season. Thus, the Broncos have much to play for getting ready for the game at Pacific on Saturday.

Santa Clara’s only notable win all season was at Gonzaga 103-99 in OT. The Broncos most recent game prior to last night’s loss to the Zags was a 30-point victory over Washington State in which they made a WCC-record 23 three-pointers. In that game, five Broncos scored in double figures for the eighth time this season as four players hit four or more threes, led by #10 6’1” SR Carlos Stewart Jr., who poured in a game high 22 pts. Stewart is Santa Clara’s leading scorer in WCC play at 13.2 ppg. 6’7” Elijah Mahi, a junior forward out of Toronto, ON, added 19, while 6’0” RS JR Brenton Knapper had a career high 18 pts off the bench, and 6’10” SR stretch four Johnny O’Neil had his sixth game of the season scoring 15 points or more, tallying 17.

Santa Clara has been one of the conference’s top offensive teams, averaging 81.1 points per game and has four players averaging between 11 and 13 points per game, led by Stewart, 6’7” SR Adama-Alpha Bal (13.1 ppg) and 7’0” JR Cristoph Tilly (12.0 ppg). 6’5” SR Tyeree Bryan (9.6 ppg) has the ability to carry the group - he exploded for a season-high 35 (7-12 from three) in Santa Clara’s first game at Gonzaga.

The Broncos also excel in bench production, ranking second in the WCC (and 29th nationally) with 28.7 bench points per game. They also rank second in the WCC (and 21st nationally) with 16.9 assists per game.

The Tigers wilted early in the first meeting against the Broncos in Santa Clara, falling behind by 15 midway through the first half to down 21 at half as the Broncs won going away by 34. That may have been 6’4” Lamar Washington’s worst game of the season as the Tigers’ leader, MVP and all-WCC candidate suffered through a 2 for 11 shooting game with 7 turnovers in just 29 minutes. Pacific allowed Santa Clara to shoot 55.4% from the floor as nine different Broncos hit the scoresheet in an easy win.

Saturday’s game begins at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET from Stockton.