Web update: Broncos still winless in WCC with losses to Zags and Pilots
By Marcela Gonzales
The Portland Pilots re-routed Santa Clara women's basketball team's hopes of their first conference win, beating the Broncos 50-38 Saturday afternoon at the Leavey Center.
Down only two points in the first half, the game began to slip away for the Broncos in the second half.
"We have to put the two halves together," said Santa Clara's Lena Gipson. "We regularly come out in the first half and we're either ahead or totally behind. We performed a lot better in the first half than in the second. We just have consistency issues."
But one thing that has been consistent for the Broncos (2-16, 0-3) are turnovers. Santa Clara's 25 turnovers accounted for 18 of the Pilots' points.
Gipson collected her 13th double-double of the season with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds. Yet, her physical game was not enough to slow the second half charge of the Pilots.
"We're regressing back to our pre-season performance," Gipson said. "This was definitely a game we should have won."
With the exception of Lena Gipson's 15 points, no other Santa Clara player scored more than 6 points.
Starters Elizabeth Doran was second on the team with six points, Rhianna Faithfull and Maggie Goldenberger had 4 points. Starter Sara Majors had no points in 33 minutes of play.
Off the bench, point guard Alyssa Shoji scored 5 points and forward Kathy Willinsky added 4 points.
Portland (8-8, 1-1) scored the game's first points with a basket from behind the arc. After a turnover on their first possession, Santa Clara put two points on the board at 18:16.
The Pilot's Allyson Sievers increased the Pilot's lead to 9-4 with a reverse layup. After a layup of their own, the Broncos tied the game 9-9 with a trey by guard Elizabeth Doran.
Portland's lead grew to 20-15. But Santa Clara narrowed the difference to 20-18 at halftime.
The Broncos went scoreless for 3:39 minutes in the second half before Gipson sunk two free throws to cut the Pilots' lead to 25-20. But Portland continued to soar to their biggest lead of 35-23 at 13:18 remaining in the game.
Santa Clara once again went on a dry spell when they failed to score in the last 4:47 of the game. Their stagnant 38 points eventually sealed their loss.
"We're going to pick it up this season," Gipson said. "I have confidence in my teammates and I have faith in my coaching staff and everyone who is supporting us; we're going to do better."
For the Pilots, Tara Cronin scored a team-high 20 points and had 5 steals. Sievers added 12 points in 32 minutes of action.
The Broncos will look to stop the downpour of losses when they play the San Francisco Dons Saturday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m.
Contact Marcela Gonzales at m3gonzales@scu.edu.
BRONCOS NOTEBOOK: By Cecile Nguyen
Portland head coach Jim Sollars was Santa Clara head coach Jennifer Mountain's childhood coach when she was 14-years old in summer ball.
The 50-38 loss to the Pilots today was the Broncos' first loss to Portland since Feb. 28, 2004. Santa Clara has won 10 of the last 15 meetings against the Pilots, including the last nine consecutive games before today's loss.
Bulldogs bully their way past women's basketball
By Gabe Taylor
For the Santa Clara women's basketball team, the number three showed no signs of being a charm.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs (14-4, 2-0) earned a grueling 65-47 victory over the Broncos Thursday night at the Leavey Center.
For the Broncos (2-16, 0-3), Lena Gipson posted her 12th double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 boards. Elizabeth Doran knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.
Doran also scored her 500th career point in the Broncos' loss.
Consistency has been a primary focus of the season. The Broncos have failed time and time again at maintaining any sort of rhythm or intensity down the stretch.
"If I had the answer for that, I'd try to change that," said head coach Jennifer Mountain. "We, for whatever reason, do not come out that second half."
Gonzaga started off the game with little control or consistency. In the first 5 minutes alone, the Bulldogs went 1-8 from the field and scored only 3 points.
However, the Zags were saved by the Broncos' inability to take charge. Although Santa Clara jumped out to a 9-3 lead, they were plagued by turnovers.
Turnovers continued to add to the Broncos hardships, they had to 27 in the game.
Finally gaining a rhythm, the Zags fought their way back after relying on three pointers as a main source of offense.
Despite holding the Bulldogs to 25 percent shooting in the first half, Santa Clara was unable to keep Gonzaga from threatening to put the game out of reach.
At the half, the scoreboard read 29-31.
Gonzaga displayed their talent and strength in the second half, riding on the shoulders of Courtney Vandersloot's game-high 25 points, including three 3-pointers.
Mountain tried to use her familiarity of the Bulldogs to Santa Clara's advantage.
She was an assistant coach with Gonzaga for the past seven years before coming to Santa Clara and even helped recruit and develop some Gonzaga players.
The team's focus was on shutting down Bulldog star Heather Bowman and Vandersloot, said Mountain.
Bowman finished with 12 points.
Throughout the second half, Santa Clara was ragged. Defensively, the Broncos struggled to contain the Zags' hot hands.
Offensively, Santa Clara found difficulty in cracking Gonzaga's zone.
"Their zone is good because they're tall and have long arms, so they get in passing lanes," said Santa Clara guard Elizabeth Doran. "It was bothering us, but we were getting shots up, we just got to finish."
BRONCOS NOTEBOOK: By Cecile Nguyen
Gonzaga has a five-game winning streak over Santa Clara and has won 11 of the last 15 match ups between the two teams.
The Broncos' margin of defeat in two games versus the Bulldogs last year was 22.5 points.
Zags' Courtney Vandersloot needed just two assists to take over fifth place on Gonzaga's all-time list in career assists. The forward finished with five in the game and now has 295 career assists in only her second season of collegiate play.