Web update: Broncos bounce back from Stanford loss with comeback win over Belmont

By Matthew Cucuzza

Santa Clara's all-time scoring leader Kurt Rambis saw his jersey sent to the Leavey Center rafters at halftime of Monday night's opening game of the 42nd Cable Car Classic.

Perhaps the new banner injected some offense into Santa Clara's current squad.

Santa Clara started the second stanza with a 24-3 run, erasing an 18-point halftime deficit to defeat Belmont University83-80 in game one of the nation's oldest annual holiday tournaments.

"We had Kurt talk to the team before we went out to warm up tonight," said Broncos Head Coach Kerry Keating. "He was very adamant about what's important to win. Even though it took us 20 minutes to figure out what he was talking about."

With the win, the hosts Santa Clara (6-7) advance to the Cable Car Classic's championship game for the fourth consecutive year.

"It was good for us to come back from a big deficit to know we can play with anyone if we compete and play hard," said Santa Clara guard James Rahon.

The Broncos came out sluggish in the first half, falling behind early amidst errant passes and four Belmont three-pointers in the first 3:26. Belmont closed out the first half with a 23-6 run, carrying a 46-28 lead into the break.

Keating said he challenged his team to a fight inside the Bronco locker room during the Rambis ceremony.

"It was a gut check for us," said Santa Clara center John Bryant.

Bryant finished with 11 points and grabbed eight boards.

"Someone needed to do something," said Keating. "Someone needed to challenge our team to fight and to play hard. Thankfully they took the fight to the court and not the locker room. They're smart, that's why they go to Santa Clara."

Broncos freshman guard Kevin Foster led the Broncos second-half rally, registering 22 of his career-high 24 points after the halftime pep talk.

"I didn't play well the first half," Foster said. "I told myself to be aggressive and to get myself open."

Santa Clara forward Marc Trasolini scored a career-high 10 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds in his first career start.

Matthew Dotson led Belmont with 18 points and guard Andy Wicke had 17 points. Belmont's Alex Renfroe led his team with six boards and added 16 points.

"[Coach Keating] told us exactly what they were going to do, and they did exactly what he told us," said Bryant. "All we prepared for was them running in transition and shooting threes."

Belmont Head Coach Rick Byrd could do little as his team crumbled under a 55-point second-half barrage worthy of "Superman" Kurt Rambis himself.

"I am extremely disappointed in my basketball team," Byrd said. "I'm disappointed in our heart, disappointed in our performance, disappointed in our decision making. We have lost a19 and 18-point leads in two games now. You've got to play 40 minutes and if our guys don't know that yet then they're dumber than their GPAs indicate."

Rambis, known for his timeless black horn-rimmed glasses and flowing brown locks, still holds the Santa Clara's all-time scoring record and is second all-time in rebounding.

The 6-foot-8 Cupertino native was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year in 1977 and WCC Player of the Year in 1980.

The New York Knicks drafted Rambis 58th overall in 1980 but waived the Cupertino High graduate later that year. Rambis spent a season in Greece with AEK Athens BC before returning to North America and signing as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won four NBA titles with the "Showtime" Lakes of the 80's.

Rambis is currently the Lakers' assistant coach; a position he has served for the last seven years.

Keating said this win is no more important than any other for the Broncos.

"I would rank it number one right now, because it's only going last about 24 hours, and then it's not going to matter," Keating said. "Tomorrow night we have to play for a championship."

The championship game of the Cable Car Classic is tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Leavey Center.

Contact Matthew Cucuzza at (408) 551-1918 or at mcucuzza@scu.edu.

BRONCOS NOTEBOOK:

Decensae White came off the bench and played less than 10 minutes in the game for the second consecutive game. He had no points in four minutes tonight against Belmont. White had 10 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes in his first game as a Bronco Dec. 17 against UNLV and started against Pacific Dec. 20 collecting 10 points and eight rebounds in 35 minutes of action. In Santa Clara's last game versus Stanford, the forward played only nine minutes and had two points.

Belmont attempted a season-high 35 three pointers; making 12 three's. In their previous nine games, the Bruins have averaged 27 attempts from beyond the arc and have made 10.6 treys per game.

Head Coach Kerry Keating was hit with a technical foul with 8:30 remaining in the game as Belmont led 62-60 when he was arguing for a foul he thought should have been called for center John Bryant.

STANFORD 77, SANTA CLARA 69

By Justin Phan

In a game mired by missed opportunities and inconsistent play, it was the visiting Stanford Cardinal who emerged victorious as they defeated Santa Clara 77-69 to keep their perfect record intact at 8-0.

The game marked the return of former Head Coach Dick Davey, who spent 30 years coaching at Santa Clara before the school decided to go in another direction and hire current Head Coach Kerry Keating. Davey's signature argyle sweater was visibly missing instead it is now replaced by a suit and cardinal tie.

Bronco senior John Bryant scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed a career-high 22 rebounds, but even that was not enough to overcome Stanford's well-rounded offensive attack. The Cardinal had four players score in double-figures, led by 18 points from junior Landry Fields.

Stanford took an early 8-6 lead five minutes into the game off of a layup by senior Anthony Goods and never relinquished the lead.

Santa Clara came out extremely flat out of the gates and could not get anything going offensively. The Broncos shot just 40 percent from the field in the first half and went into halftime down by 10 points.

"We came out we weren't talking, we weren't communicating, we did not follow our game plan at all," said Bryant. "We were all adamant about just talking on defense and transition defense is number one and it's just disappointing when we don't go out there and execute it."

The Broncos came out refocused in the second half and made a push with 10 minutes left in the game to cut the lead to just four points, going on a 10-2 run spearheaded by two treys from freshman James Rahon.

That would be as close as Santa Clara would get though, as Stanford's lead would fluctuate from five to nine points during the final five-minute stretch.

"We put ourselves in a bad hole in the first half because our transition defense was non-existent," Keating said. "We did a great job of fighting back but you can't expect to win when you turn the ball over 22 times, especially against a senior-dominated team."

After turning the ball over just 10 times in three of their last four games, Santa Clara was uncharacteristically reckless with the ball and it proved to be a difference maker as Stanford had only 10 turnovers compared to the Broncos' 22.

"They did a good job of pressuring us," Keating added. "We have some guys that are playing college basketball for the first time that are getting a good lesson at how hard it us to play at this level and how hard it is to have things go the way you want them to go."

Contact Justin Phan at jphan1@scu.edu.