Bronco Briefs: Men's basketball continues slide at home
By Brian Betz
Men's Basketball
USD 78, SCU 66
Second-half struggles plagued the Broncos again Saturday night, as they failed to score for nearly 10 minutes before falling to the Toreros.
Santa Clara opened the second half scoring six straight for a 14-point lead, but USD rallied behind a 24-2 run to close out the contest. San Diego's Roy Morris scored 18 of his 20 points in the second, while teammates Jason Blair and Jason Keep added 18 and 12, respectively. Junior center Jim Howell led the Broncos with 16 points at the post, while sophomore guard Ethan Rhode added 14.
Santa Clara is now 11-10 on the season (2-6 in conference play) and will look to rebound Saturday against Loyola Marymount, who defeated the Broncos 75-69 last month.
Baseball
UC-Irvine 2, SCU 1
The Broncos entered this past weekend on a four-game winning streak, but could not extend it to five after a 2-1 10th-inning loss to the Anteaters.
Senior shortstop A.J. LaBarbera scored the Broncos' only run in the third inning when freshman infielder Eric Newton grounded into a double play. That lead held until the fifth, when the Anteaters tied it up with a Matt Fisher one-out RBI single.
Senior pitcher Matt Travis had another strong outing, allowing four hits over 5 2/3 innings of work. Both bullpens kept the game at a stalemate until the 10th, when a leadoff double for Irvine eventually stood as the game-winning run.
UC-Irvine 9, SCU 4
A five-run fourth inning sealed the victory for the Anteaters in the second game of the weekend tripleheader. After scoring three runs in the second, Irvine capitalized on two Santa Clara fielding errors to break the game open in the fourth. Santa Clara attempted a rally in the bottom half of the inning, as Newton hit his first collegiate home run, while the Broncos plated two more to make it 8-4.
But Santa Clara got no closer the rest of the afternoon, as Irvine reliever Steve Schroer came in and allowed just one hit in the last three innings. Junior pitcher John Redmond picked up the loss for the Broncos.
SCU 5, UC-Irvine 4
Down four runs going into the bottom of the seventh, Santa Clara staved off a series sweep by rallying for three runs in that inning and another in the ninth to push the game to extra frames.
Neither team showed signs of scoring until the second inning when Santa Clara had runners on the corners. Freshman infielder Michael Thompson beat out a ground ball, allowing freshman utility man David Hoffmire to score from third and salvage the series.
Freshman pitcher Patrick Overholt picked up the win, throwing the final five innings without giving up a run. Santa Clara improved to 5-4 after the weekend, and now prepare for a three-game series this weekend at San Diego State.
Women's Basketball
USD 80, SCU 77
Second-half struggles plagued the Broncos again Saturday night, as they failed to score for nearly 10 minutes before falling to the Toreros.
Santa Clara opened the second half scoring six straight for a 14-point lead, but USD rallied behind a 24-2 run to close out the contest. San Diego's Roy Morris scored 18 of his 20 points in the second, while teammates Jason Blair and Jason Keep added 18 and 12, respectively. Junior center Jim Howell led the Broncos with 16 points at the post, while sophomore guard Ethan Rhode added 14.
Santa Clara is now 11-10 on the season (2-6 in conference play) and will look to rebound Saturday against Loyola Marymount, who defeated the Broncos 75-69 last month.
USD 80, SCU 77
Ten three-pointers in the second half were not enough to erase the 17-point halftime deficit the Broncos faced, and they lost to USD Saturday night.
Sophomore point guard Kayla Huss led the comeback, hitting six three-pointers in the second half before registering a career-high 24 points. Not to be outdone, fellow sophomore guard Quinn Thomas finished with 24 as well.
Thomas also blocked a shot with 18 seconds left, but the Broncos missed a three at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime. The women travel back to Southern California this weekend for dates with Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
Men's Golf
The men's golf team competed last weekend in the UC-Irvine Anteater Invitational, finishing in a tie with CSU-Northridge for 10th in a field of 11. Freshman Blake Lugar was the highest finisher for Santa Clara in ninth place, with sophomore John Colyar as the next highest in a tie for 38th.
UC-Riverside led after the first day and never relinquished their lead, winning the championship of the 23rd annual tournament. Santa Clara has almost a month off before returning to the lynx March 11-12 for the Sacramento St. Invitational in Sacramento.
Men's Tennis
SCU 5, Hawaii 2
The Broncos extended their home winning streak to 13 this past Tuesday, sweeping the doubles competition while dropping just two of six singles matches. Junior Erich Chen clinched the match and collected his first doubles victory on the season.
Senior Federico Mattioli, sophomore Francisco Zepponi and sophomore Ben Hidalgo all won their singles matches in straight sets. Santa Clara hosts both Sacramento St. and UC-Santa Barbara this Sunday.
Women's Tennis
Cal Poly 5, SCU 2
Senior Christine Limbers and sophomore Catherine Cochrane were the only two Broncos to win in singles action last Friday, as they dropped their first match of the season to Cal Poly. Limbers and sophomore Janalle Kaloi were victorious in their doubles match, winning 8-4.
SCU 6, CSU-Fullerton 1
The women bounced back this past Saturday, sweeping singles action and losing just one doubles match en route to the 6-1 win. The win improves Santa Clara's record to 3-1 on the year.
UC-Santa Barbara 5, SCU 2
Santa Clara won two of three doubles matches, but only freshman Casey Knutson was victorious in singles action, winning 6-4, 6-2. The women host Sacramento St. this weekend.