Men's basketball topples two conference foes

By Nicholas Pinkerton and Ryan Donough

Santa Clara 58, LMU 35

In their West Coast Conference home opener, the Broncos emerged victorious, cruising past the Loyola Marymount Lions for the 58-35 win.

The Broncos (9-8) improved to 1-1 in WCC play, while the Lions (4-15) dropped to 1-2.

Coming off a harsh road loss to Saint Mary's, Santa Clara Head Coach Kerry Keating and the Broncos were glad to return to home to better their conference play.

"The players have really responded coming off that bad loss. I thought our crowd was great tonight. It's great to get back home," said Keating.

Santa Clara set the tone in the second half, outscoring the Lions 33-15. The Broncos began the second half on a 6-0 run, pushing their lead to 11 points. They made two more strong pushes in the second half, going on 9-0 and 13-0 scoring streaks.

Brody Angley led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-16 shooting, while John Bryant added a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Ben Dowdell also added 7 points in the victory.

LMU was cold from the field, shooting only 33 percent and committing 17 turnovers. The Lions were led by sophomore guard Shawn Deadwiler, who led all LMU scorers with 11 points.

The Broncos committed just 12 turnovers and out-rebounded the Lions by 19, something that pleased Keating.

"We're not an offensive juggernaut by any means, but we understand that defensive rebounding can help us win games," said Keating.

The road to a 23-point victory was not an easy one for the Broncos in the first half. The Lions came out highly energized and went on an 8-0 run in the first four minutes.

Santa Clara slowly answered back, capitalizing on costly LMU turnovers and taking the lead with 7:55 left in the half. Down 18-17 with over four minutes left, the Broncos went on an 8-0 run and led at halftime, 25-20.

Santa Clara 101, Pepperdine 86

Records fell on Monday night in the Leavey Center as the Broncos defeated the Pepperdine Waves 101-86.

The Broncos (10-8) improved to 2-1 in conference play while the Waves (6-14) fell to 0-4. Santa Clara carried the momentum from their victory over Loyola Marymount on Saturday night and led the entire game over the Waves.

With just under two minutes to play, the Broncos extended their lead to 12 points, pushing the score to 91-79. Santa Clara was able to retain the lead comfortably for the remainder with 10-for-10 free-throw shooting in the last two minutes of the game.

Head Coach Kerry Keating was happy with the win, and said his team is becoming more comfortable with the system he is trying to institute at Santa Clara.

"I think we are starting to get a better understanding of what we are trying to do here and are getting into it more quickly now," Keating said.

Santa Clara set a season high for total points in a game with 101. That point total also marked the first time the Broncos had reached the century mark since the '93-'94 season against CSU Chico, and the first time they scored over 100 against a conference opponent since the '90-'91 season against Loyola Marymount.

The Broncos also shot 67 percent from the field, which fell just short of the Leavey Center record for shooting percentage for a Santa Clara team in a game at 68 percent.

Additionally, Santa Clara made a season-high 12 three-pointers to cap their victory over Pepperdine.

The Broncos were led by senior guard Brody Angley, who had career highs in points and assists with 23 and 13, respectively.

Angley keyed a balanced attack for the Broncos, who had five scorers in double figures. Freshman forward Ben Dowdell followed Angley's performance, scoring 17 points on 100 percent shooting from the field. Angley, however, was most happy with getting the victory.

"I could care less about that stuff (records), just as long as we get the win," Angley said.

The Broncos began the game on a 9-0 run and pushed their lead to 20, at 38-18, with seven minutes left in the first half, thanks to some sharp outside shooting. In the first half, the Broncos shot an outstanding 70 percent from beyond the arc.

The Waves cut the lead to three in the second half after they caught fire, shooting 12 for 25 from the three-point line. However, it wasn't enough, as the Broncos pulled away for their second conference victory of the season.

Next up for the Broncos

Santa Clara continues WCC play on the road Saturday versus San Diego at 7 p.m. The next home game will be against Gonzaga on Feb. 2, at 4 p.m.

Contact the sports staff at (408) 551-1918 or sports@thesantaclara.com.