Gonzaga Bests Broncos in Leavey

By Chris Glennon

Despite a roaring crowd of 4,907, Santa Clara's men's basketball team fell to Gonzaga University 81-74 on Saturday night. In front of the record level of attendance at the Leavey Center, Gonzaga (15-1, 2-0), ranked number eight in the country, used 33 points from forward Kelly Olynyk to top the upset minded Broncos (12-4, 1-1).

"The difference, first obviously, was Olynyk," Head Coach Kerry Keating said. "You can't let a guy come in and have a career night in your own gym."

The Bulldogs inside presence was a key in the game. They got 14 points from forward Elias Harris and another eight from Sam Dower off the bench. They also shot 30 free throws and made 27 of them. The Broncos got 10 fewer points from the charity stripe than did Gonzaga.

"It was too easy for them. We gave up easy buckets," said Santa Clara senior Marc Trasolini, "That's unacceptable and its not going to happen again."

Trasolini finished with 19 points and nine rebounds on the night.

Santa Clara was paced by senior Kevin Foster who poured in 29 points. He also eclipsed the 2,000-point mark for his career and is Santa Clara's all time leading scorer.

"I was driving a lot more," said Foster who was only 2-12 from behind the arc. "At the end of the day we have to focus on getting the win and we didn't get that."

Both Foster and Keating highlighted Gonzaga getting a few key loose balls and offensive rebounds in keeping the Broncos at bay. "Those are things we could control and unfortunately we didn't do a good enough job of it," Keating said. "They'll be ready to do a better job of it in our next game."

Santa Clara kept it close all night, but could never string together enough stops to catch Gonzaga. Midway through the second half, the Broncos, down two points at the time, forced a turnover but then threw the ball right back to the Bulldogs who extended their lead from there. Santa Clara never got closer.

"We didn't turn it over a lot, but that turnover was key," Keating said.

For Santa Clara, point guard Evan Roquemore had 11 points and seven assists. Roquemore, Trasolini and Foster have all scored at least 1,000 points in their careers. It is the only such trio in all of college basketball.  

The record number of fans was boosted in part thanks to Keating. Before the game, Keating offered to pay up to $100 to any Santa Clara student living on campus to help cover the cost of a hotel. The game was played on Jan. 5 but Santa Clara's residence halls didn't reopen until the following morning. In the end, 12 students took him up on his offer and shared four hotel rooms.

The loss was the second against a top 10 team for the Broncos, who also fell to top-ranked Duke a week earlier. The Broncos will be on the road against Loyola Marymount University Thursday night before returning home to face another of the West Coast Conference's top teams in Brigham Young University on Saturday afternoon. 

Contact Chris Glennon at cglennon@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.