Broncos Falter Against Zags
By Ryan Marshall
The Santa Clara women's basketball team came close to stealing a victory over the perennial top team in the West Coast Conference, but the No. 22 Bulldogs of Gonzaga University escaped with the victory last Thursday night at the Leavey Center.
Gonzaga is in search of their eighth straight regular season WCC title and erased a potential roadblock by beating Santa Clara, 81-68. The 13-point deficit did not reflect how close the score was for the majority of the game.
Fourth-year Head Coach Jennifer Mountain was quite proud of her group.
"You never like to lose by any means, but I actually think tonight's performance was one of the better performances that we've had in a while," said Mountain. "I'm really proud of the effort we had. I thought we shared the ball well and we played really hard."
After a slow start in which the Bulldogs jumped out to a 9-2 lead, the Broncos were all business for the remainder of the first half. They shot an efficient 53 percent from the field in the first half and an even more impressive 54 percent from beyond the three-point line in an effort that put them ahead 40-39 at halftime.
Santa Clara connected on seven three-pointers in the first half, which not only accounted for 21 of their 40 first-half points, but also forced the Bulldogs' defense to extend and make room for other Broncos to make plays.
"If we're shooting well from the outside, then it opens it up for our post players," said Mountain. "It's something that we rely on constantly, so if we don't shoot the ball well from the three, we generally don't score the ball very well."
Given their shooting performance, Santa Clara didn't have many problems scoring in the first half. But Gonzaga made some adjustments at the intermission, improving their containment of one of the country's top three-point shooting teams.
The Broncos were held to 3 of 15 on three-pointers in the second half as Gonzaga's defensive approach forced some tough shots and erased some open looks that were present in the first half.
But the defensive pressure applied to the Broncos' shooters allowed for success in other areas on the court. This allowed Santa Clara to keep Gonzaga's second half lead at a manageable margin.
With two minutes to go, the Ganzaga led by six.
The Bulldogs were able to seal the win by turning to an effective trap defense to protect their six-point cushion. This defensive strategy forced a handful of costly Santa Clara turnovers that allowed Gonzaga to get to the free throw line.
"(The trap) slowed us up," said Mountain. "We knew they were going to do it out of a free throw or a timeout situation, that's what they do. We just got ourselves stuck on the sidelines and we're not very big so it caused a lot of trouble."
The Broncos had 22 turnovers in the game, compared to Gonzaga's 10.
"That was tough for us," said junior guard Meagan Fulps. "They're really long and they're tall, so they were able to get a lot of hands on the ball. We definitely needed to limit that. I'm sure they got a lot of buckets off of our turnovers."
Fulps had nine points, five rebounds and four assists in the game. Alyssa Shoji added 17 points while making five of 10 three-pointers, and Lindsay Leo contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds. Gonzaga's Katelan Redmon poured in 32 points on 14-21 shooting.
Redmond and the rest of the Bulldogs proved too tough to outlast this time around, but the Broncos still felt that the game was winnable.
"It hurts a little bit just because we battled so hard throughout the entire game, but I'm just really proud of our effort," said Fulps. "We went out there and we fought, and we just kept with it."
With their loss at Loyola Marymount on Saturday, the Broncos have now lost four games in a row. Santa Clara returns to action tonight on the road against the Gaels of Saint Mary's.
Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852.