Broncos upset by Gaels

By Jack Ferdon

In a year rife with poor performances, Santa Clara may have saved its worst for last.

The Broncos lost in the first round of the West Coast Conference tournament to an improved but still limited St. Mary's team, 72-67 in overtime. The loss snapped a six-game win streak against the Gaels and dropped the Broncos record to 13-15, the school's worst record since 1990.

The Broncos jumped out to a 14-4 lead early in the first half but then went into a shooting slump that lasted for the rest of the game and allowed St. Mary's to draw even by halftime. As bad as Santa Clara's offense was, with a combination of tough defense and 10 made free throws in the second half, they managed to take an eight-point lead with 2:42 remaining in regulation. The Broncos seemingly had the game in hand.

Then the Gaels, led by Teohn Conner's two three-pointers and aided by some poor shot selection and clock management by the Broncos, went on an 11-0 run and found themselves leading by three points, 55-52, with three seconds left in the second half.

After a timeout, the Broncos got the ball to senior forward Justin Holbrook who drained a three-pointer as time expired and sent the game into overtime. Holbrook finished with a team-high 16 points.

While Holbrook's shot figured to give Santa Clara the edge in momentum during the extra period, the Broncos actually played their worst basketball of the game - if not the year - in the final five minutes. St. Mary's hit 4-of-5 shots in overtime while Santa Clara went 2-of-9. The Gaels led by as much as eight before a late push by the Broncos cut the deficit to three with 18 seconds left. But any hope for a second overtime vanished when sophomore point guard Kyle Bailey's offline runner was rebounded by St. Mary's.

"We didn't play with the efficiency we needed in overtime," Davey said. "St. Mary's seemed to put more energy in down the stretch."

Both Bailey and senior forward Steve Ross, the Broncos' leading scorers, had poor nights shooting the ball.

Bailey, playing with a jammed finger, was 3-of-16 from the floor, 2-of-7 from beyond the arc and 5-of-11 from the line.

Ross hit only 3-of-11 from the floor and did not attempt a three-pointer. Davey, who benched Ross throughout the season for his poor defense, and did the same during the first half of the game. He attributed the lack of production to a flu that prevented Ross from practicing much of last week and St. Mary's strong defense.

"[Ross] couldn't get any shots," Davey said. "They were hounding him."