Santa Clara Can't Pull Off Upset

By Tom Schreier

Despite Kevin Foster passing Steve Nash to become the No. 4 leading scorer in Santa Clara history, the Broncos fell 93-77 to the No. 21 Saint Mary's Gaels.

Following the game, Santa Clara remained in the West Coast Conference cellar, having lost all five of their WCC matchups. It was the Broncos' sixth consecutive loss overall.

The game started out well as Foster hit his first three of the night and was 4-5 from beyond the arc at halftime. Santa Clara made more than half of their shots from the field and led 47-46 through 20 minutes of action.

The second half started strong with junior guard Raymond Cowels swatting the shot of Saint Mary's Jorden Page.

The team played disciplined basketball — four of the five fouls called in the first three minutes went against Saint Mary's.

Harrison's dunk in transition had the sellout crowd of 4,700 cheering louder than they had all game.

But much to the dismay of the home crowd, the excitement was short-lived. Matthew Dellavedova, the Gaels' leading scorer and a product of head coach Randy Bennett's pipeline to Australia, put the Saint Mary's ahead 65-64 with 10 minutes to go.

Within the next two minutes, Saint Mary's extended the lead to 72-66.

Then, at just a hair under the five-minute mark, Keating got a technical foul for arguing with the officials as his team's chance for an upset victory was slipping away.

McArthur fouled out with about two minutes to go and the Gaels finished the game on a 32-13 run. It was the sixth consecutive loss for Santa Clara, who have not won a game since defeating Eastern Michigan on Dec. 29. It was the ninth straight win for Saint Mary's.

The Broncos' were outscored in the paint 48-28, were out-rebounded 53-38 and shot just north of 25 percent from the field in the second half. The effort to beat a ranked team in front of the first sellout crowd in two years came up short. Another bright spot for Santa Clara was forward Niyi Harrison producing a career-high 23 points in the contest.

"We played the way we wanted to against them," said Keating, "and, as has been the case in the BYU and certainly the Gonzaga, (and) now the Saint Mary's game, we played really well in the first half, and now we have to carry over and play well in the second half."

Santa Clara played at their best when they were scoring in transition.

Unfortunately, inconsistent defense and over-officiating (there were 55 total fouls called in the 40-minute contest) slowed down the up-tempo game that the Broncos had found to be successful in the first half.

"The game got taken away," said Keating. "It got physical, and we couldn't get going in transition where we were successful in the first half of the game and the first part of the second half."

Keating appeared particularly vexed about the team's rebounding.

"We had a chance to get some stops and we didn't come up with the finished product, with some rebounds," he said, shaking his head. "That hurts as well — too many offensive rebounds."

Keating praised Foster and Harrison for their efforts, but acknowledged that their production dropped in the second half — especially Foster, who was 1-6 from the field and 1-3 beyond the arc in the last 20 minutes.

"They had good practices this week and it carried over," Keating said. "We're trying to go back to those guys when we needed some baskets and weren't successful doing that."

He also heaped praise on Dellavedova, Saint Mary's superstar who ended the contest with a game-high 26 points.

"Everyone wants to talk about how they lost Omar (Samhan) and Mickey (McConnell)," said Keating. "Dellavedova was on those teams too. He's been the most important player on that program since day 1 and he's proven that from day 1."

At 8-11 overall and 0-6 in the WCC, Santa Clara will have to win the WCC tournament in Las Vegas in order to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association in March. Unfortunately, they will have to play WCC opponents in Las Vegas and they have yet to beat one this season.

Santa Clara will get another shot at the Gaels on Feb. 11 in Moraga.

Contact Tom Schreier at tschreier@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852.