Web update: Men's basketball falters in conference home opener versus San Diego

By Cecile Nguyen

Santa Clara's men's basketball team lost another close conference game against San Diego Sunday afternoon at the Leavey Center.

After a near upset of Saint Mary's on Friday, the Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating said he was "disgusted" by the Broncos' lack of effort in the 55-50 loss to the reigning West Coast Conference tournament champion Toreros.

"I'm always disappointed when we lose, but I'm really disgusted right now because we handed them a game in our home gym because our effort was awful. Plain and simple," Keating said. "We won't win games if we don't play hard every play, every possession the entire game.

"Our effort wasn't there. This is the most disappointed I have ever been coaching here. We're lucky we didn't lose by 30."

With 42.0 seconds left in the game and Santa Clara up 48-47, Broncos' Perry Petty was hit with a technical following the inbound pass after San Diego's Trumaine Johnson was already called for an intentional foul.

"The two got in each other's faces and the official told me Petty threw and elbow," Keating said. "We have to do better, especially if we're winning in a game with less than 40 seconds left."

San Diego (10-7, 2-0) was already in the bonus and Gyno Pomare made the two technical free throws to give San Diego a 49-48 lead with 38.7 seconds to play.

Pomare finished with a team-high 19 points and collected 10 rebounds.

Petty drained two free to put Santa Clara up 50-49.

But the Toreros' Johnson's floater was all net and put San Diego up 51-50. The Broncos turned the ball over on the following possession as Kevin Foster tried to get the ball into the hands of center John Bryant.

Down 53-50 with less than 14 seconds in the game after two made free throws from San Diego, Santa Clara drew up the play but couldn't execute off the inbound and was forced to call another timeout.

After the timeout, however, Bryant received the pass on top of the key but he had nowhere to go as all his teammates were covered and Bryant was whistled for a double dribble.

Another foul against Santa Clara (7-11, 0-2) was called and Rob Jones made the two free throws to win the game.

With the win, the Toreros extended their winning streak to four games and have won six of their last seven games.

All of Santa Clara's points came from their starters; the Broncos had no point contribution from the bench.

Coming off a career-night in which Foster scored 31 points against Saint Mary's, Foster was limited to just four points in 39 minutes.

"(Foster) got out to a great start," San Diego head coach Bill Grier said. "To have 31 points just goes to show what kind of player he is. We tried to get him away from his three and not give him good looks."

San Diego's Pomare opened game with a wide open dunk but Santa Clara's stingy defense, aided by poor shot selections from the Toreros, put the Broncos up 23-17 at halftime.

Bryant collected his 11th double-double of the season and the 35th of his career after finishing the game with a team-high 19 points and 12 rebound.

"I'm disappointed in (Bryant) last week," Keating said. "He had the worst week of his career but he did manage to get his average in this game. He didn't turn the ball over and that's a step in the right direction for him."

Santa Clara had trouble controlling the ball and turned the ball over seven times in the first nine minutes of the second half and had 20 turnovers in the entire game.

"We didn't go out and play hard," Bryant said. "We're a good team, but no one's going to win any games with 20 turnovers.

"I take responsibility. I let the freshmen mess around in the lockerroom before the game."

Santa Clara will try again to earn their first conference game when they take on Gonzaga on the road Thursday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m.

BRONCOS NOTEBOOKBy Cecile Nguyen

John Bryant is second in the nation in double-doubles with his 11th. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin leads all players with 12 double-doubles.

The Toreros swept Santa Clara last year and the Broncos swept the season series the year before that.

Scouts from the Sacramento Kings were present at the game.

A CBS 5 reporter interviewed San Diego head coach Bill Grier after the game. She asked Grier about his thoughts on being the inspiration behind Santa Clara's John Bryant's weight loss. Grier was confused and it was pointed out to the CBS reporter by another writer that she was speaking with San Diego head coach and not Broncos head coach Kerry Keating. Grier, however, took the case of mistaken identity with eased.

"If I was the inspiration behind John's weight loss I want to know what I did," Grier said with a laugh. "I have a guard who I want to lose some weight."

Contact Cecile Nguyen at (408) 551-1918 or sports@thesantaclara.com.