Women's basketball drops two
By Josh Griffin
The Santa Clara women's basketball team was swept this weekend in road games with Bay Area foes San Francisco and St. Mary's. The two losses brought Santa Clara into a three-way tie for third place in the West Coast Conference with San Francisco and Loyola Marymount.
The Broncos entered the weekend in hopes of securing their second place spot in conference. Santa Clara may have been focused on next weekend's showdown with first place Pepperdine and a possible 20 win regular season. Both were lost as the Dons defeated the Broncos on Friday night 87-79 and the Gaels repeated the task in winning 84-76 Saturday afternoon in Moraga.
In Friday's game, the Broncos were unable to capitalize on senior guard Becki Ashbaugh's career high point and assist totals of 24 and 13, respectively. Fellow senior, Caroline Gruening added 17 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting.
The Dons countered by converting 22 of 26 free throws and making 11 three-point field goals in the match, the highest single game total in history against the Broncos. Lindsey Huff of San Francisco also added a career high of 27 points in the Dons' victory.
The Broncos entered halftime with a 40-38 lead, only for it to quickly transform into a 12-point Don lead in the early minutes of the second half. The Dons would not trail again, as Santa Clara only came within four points at the 1:17 mark of the second half.
Santa Clara had little time to recover with a 3 p.m. tip against the preseason WCC favorite St. Mary's on Saturday afternoon in a game televised on Fox Sports Net. Behind a career high 25 points from Katie Davis, the Gaels became the third team in four games to score 80 or more points on the fatigued Broncos. The Dosty twins also had their way against the Santa Clara defense in combining for 33 points and 25 rebounds.
Junior forward Courtney Cushing led Santa Clara with a career-high 17 points, and Ashaugh tied the career assist record of 591 formerly held by Jennifer Lucas. Junior forward Tammy Annas added 15 points, and junior forward Kendra Rhea and Gruening contributed 10 points apiece.
Santa Clara's energy level appeared lacking in the second half, when they could not make a substantial cut into St. Mary's 42-37 halftime lead. The Gaels would not relinquish the lead at any point in the game, and the closest Santa Clara came was only within four points with 43 seconds remaining.
The Broncos also struggled shooting the basketball. They shot only 35 percent from the field, and 27 percent from three- point land, including a 17 percent clip during the second half of play.
Santa Clara returns home in the hopes of maintaining its perfect season at the Leavey Center this weekend when they host Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. Thursday and Pepperdine at 2 p.m. Saturday. The team's two seniors - Becki Ashbaugh and Caroline Gruening - will be honored in their final home game on Saturday.