Web update: Broncos drops third straight, lose 62-52 to Sac State

By Gabe Taylor

The Santa Clara women's basketball team failed to hold off the Sacramento State Hornets after leading by as much as 15 points before falling 62-52.

The Hornet's outscored the Broncos 36-17 in the second half to pull off the victory.

Santa Clara remains winless in the season dropping their third consecutive games to start the year.

Turnovers proved to be a problem for the Broncos once again. Santa Clara turned the ball over 29 times in the game and the Hornets took advantaged scoring 40 points off of turnovers.

"As long as we're scared and stepping back, we're going to be turning the ball over," said Lena Gipson.

Gipson led the team yet again with her second double-double of the year. She had 17 points and pulled down a season-high 20 rebounds, 16 of which were defensive rebounds.

Liz Doran had 10 points. Doran went 0-for-7 from the three-point line. Santa Clara as a whole was 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) from beyond the arc.

Both teams showed poise in the first half on Thursday night's game at the Leavey Center; despite trailing in the opening minutes, the Broncos gained 9-7 advantage with 14:43 remaining in the first half on a field goal by freshman point guard Alyssa Shoji.

The Broncos started to pull away after freshman guard Rhianna Faithfull sank back-to-back threes to give Santa Clara a 27-15 lead.

With 1:30 remaining in the first half the Broncos held their largest lead of the night leading 35-20.

But Sacramento State closed out the first half going on a 6-0 run to cut down their deficit to just 35-26.

The Hornet's showed signs of life at the beginning of the second half pulling within three points on a three-pointer by Tika Koshiyama-Diaz.

"We came out flat in the second half," Shoji said. "We wanted to come out and jump on them right away and that didn't happen."

Santa Clara failed to help their case by being called for traveling numerous times. Sacramento capitalized on one of those turnovers and took a two-point lead on a three by Sami Field-Polisso to cap off a 13-2 Hornet's run.

"They kept coming at us," said Gipson, "They were getting pumped up and we were just being scared."

Sacramento State held the momentum during the second half and they used their energy to gain a 10-point lead with less than 5 minutes remaining on the game clock.

Santa Clara was unable to respond and Sacramento State prevailed.

Field-Polisso led the Hornets with a team-high 17 points. Field-Polisso was one of four Sacramento State starters to finish in double figures.

The Broncos will hit the road to face-off against Northern Arizona on Nov. 24 where Santa Clara will attempt to pick up their first win of the regular season.

Contact Gabe Taylor at gtaylor@scu.edu.