Santa Clara prepares for rematch with St. Mary's

By Ryan Donough

The Broncos will be looking to avenge a 31-point drubbing earlier this month when they take on the No. 23-ranked Saint Mary's Gaels this Monday night at 8 p.m. in the Leavey Center.

This will be the second meeting between the two teams this season.

In the first meeting, Santa Clara was dominated 76-45 and shot an atrocious 31 percent from the field.

Senior guard Brody Angley was uncharacteristically flat in that game, shooting just 3 for 16 from the field. Junior center John Bryant was the lone bright spot for the Broncos, scoring 18 points and bringing down 11 rebounds. The loss marked the largest defeat for Santa Clara this season.

"The game was close at 15-11, but I think at that point we had 12 turnovers, so obviously that is unacceptable," Head Coach Kerry Keating said.

The Broncos ended up turning the ball over 23 times that night.

The Broncos hope things will be different in this matchup, as the team has been showing greater consistency over the past three games, finally adjusting to Keating's offensive system.

Angley has been the workhorse for the Broncos, logging 88 minutes over the past two games, but should have plenty of time to rest with a week off after the Broncos' victory over the Pilots on Monday night.

Santa Clara enters the game in fourth place in the West Coast Conference at 4-3 and 12-10 overall, while the Gaels are in a share for first place with Gonzaga and San Diego at 6-1 and 16-3 overall.

Saint Mary's has been on the bubble of the nation's top 25 teams for the past few weeks, peaking at No. 20 last week, according to the ESPN/USA Today poll.

Saint Mary's starting lineup currently boasts three terrific players in Patrick Mills, Diamon Simpson and Omar Samhan.

Mills, a freshman guard, leads the Gaels in scoring at 14.9 points per game and burnt the Broncos for 16 points on 7 of 18 shooting in their last meeting.

"I've gone on record saying he is one of the best five guards in the country when he wants to be. He has the ability to be an All-American," said Keating.

Junior forward Simpson is a physical force down low. He is the second leading scorer, averaging 12.5 points a game, and makes his presence known on the glass and on the defensive end.

Simpson leads the Gaels in rebounding at 9.4 per game and already holds the Saint Mary's school record for blocked shots at 163. He is averaging 1.6 blocks per game this season.

"He is a very good rebounder, and obviously has a knack for blocking shots, since he has the school record and does his job very well," Keating said.

Sophomore center Samhan is one of the premier big men in the conference, averaging 12.5 points per game and 1.5 blocks per game. Even though the Broncos were beaten handily by the Gaels, Keating still welcomes the opportunity to play a team of Saint Mary's caliber.

"I certainly look forward to playing the best number-one team in the conference for the second time in 10 days," Keating said.

Contact Ryan Donough at (408) 551-1918 or rdonough@scu.edu.