Santa Clara Women’s Basketball Advances to Semifinals of WCC Tournament
The Santa Clara bench celebrates graduate student Ashley Hawkins’ and-one. (Nina Glick/The Santa Clara)
Maia Jones (0) celebrates an and-one. (Nina Glick/The Santa Clara)
LAS VEGAS – No. 3 seed Santa Clara University women’s basketball (23-8, 13-5) defeated No. 7 University of San Francisco (16-13, 9-9 WCC) 87-69 in the quarterfinal round of the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Both Santa Clara and USF struggled offensively in the first quarter, but the Broncos took control with dominant performances in the second and third quarters.
Maia Jones ’26 led the Broncos with an impressive 28 points and six rebounds.
“It was an amazing feeling. I had a lot of jitters. Tournament is a whole different atmosphere,” said Jones, when asked about playing in Sunday’s game. “Every team comes out like it’s their last game. They play hard. I felt like we all played as a team.”
Hawkins now has 204 assists this season, ranking second in single-season in program history behind Becki Ashbaugh ’02, who recorded 227 in 2001-02.
Ashley Hawkins picks up the ball, saving it from going out of bounds. (Nina Glick/The Santa Clara)
In their most recent matchup one week ago, the Broncos rallied from a 17-point deficit to defeat the Dons 90-82 in overtime at home.
Sunday’s game marked USF’s third of the tournament. The Dons beat No. 11 San Diego on Friday and No. 6 Pepperdine on Saturday to advance to the quarterfinals.
Santa Clara has shown significant improvement since last season, when the Broncos entered the WCC tournament as the No. 8 seed and were eliminated in their opening game. Before Sunday, the Broncos had not won a WCC tournament game since March 2021, when they defeated LMU in the quarterfinal round.
“We’re gonna celebrate this for at least the next hour. It’s fun to win in Vegas,” said head coach Loree Payne, after her first win in the tournament with the Broncos.
Maia Jones places a Santa Clara sticker onto the semi-final place in the bracket. (Nina Glick/The Santa Clara)
Maia Jones smiles during her post-game interview. (Nina Glick/The Santa Clara
This is the first time Santa Clara has beat San Francisco three times in a single season since 2010-11 and the first time they beat a conference opponent three times in a season since Portland in 2014-15.
Next up: With the win, Santa Clara advances to the semifinal round to face No. 2 Gonzaga on Monday, March 9, at 2:30 pm PT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.