Women's season struggles continue

By Margo Consul

Santa Clara struggled to play the full forty minutes last Thursday, and with too many turnovers the Waves of Pepperdine crashed all over the Broncos, winning by a score of 83-67.

"We gave up the penetration down the middle. We gave up too many points inside the paint and against a team like that -- as athletic as they are -- we can't allow buckets in the paint," Head Coach Jennifer Mountain said. "We have got to make sure we work on our penetration and push them to the outside."

The Broncos held the lead until sophomore guard Alyssa Shoji's turnover lead to a basket at 9:05 by Miranda Ayim, giving Pepperdine their first lead of the game by a score of 20-18.

The turnover also signaled the momentum change of the first half. The Waves went on a 21-12 scoring run by the end of the half and forced 15 turnovers by Santa Clara. At the end of the first half Pepperdine lead 41-30.

At 10:12 in the half, redshirt junior forward Lena Gipson was subbed out after her second personal foul, a move chosen by Mountain to take the heat off Gipson.

"If I'm too strong or aggressive with players that are not my same size, I get offensive fouls called. I got a couple pretty hard knocks so I thought I was able to pick it up a little bit and knock back. When people knock me, I knock back," Gipson said.

Strong defense by Gipson in the first half was a huge factor in holding off Pepperdine early. She led the team at the half in defensive rebounds with four.

Leading scorers for the Broncos at the half were freshman guard Ashley Armstrong with eight, senior forward Maggie Goldenberger with seven and Gipson with six.

"I really think that the momentum of the game changed when (Gipson) got into foul trouble and had to come out of the game," Mountain said. "I thought we had really dictated the tempo. We need to have her in the ball game. It's a no brainer."

"We need to have Lena on the floor and we didn't have her on the floor long enough," she added.

Pepperdine would continue to dominate in the second half. The last spark of energy by the Broncos was seen at 5:55, where a three-point shot by sophomore guard Rhianna Faithfull led to three three-pointers in a row for the Broncos in two and half minutes of play -- the other two by freshman guard Meagan Fulps.

"The starting out strong and dipping has been the problem that we have tried to overcome this season thus far, and it's a little bit difficult because of our youth," Gipson said. "They don't come out of high school knowing how to respond to the (Division I) situations that we are in."

However, that last surge wouldn't be enough to rally a comeback. The Waves held on for a 83-67 victory.

Mental breakdowns were a factor in the game leading to multiple scoring runs by the Waves. Santa Clara is determined to eliminate that from affecting the game.

"We just have to work on actually physically beating ourselves to know when we can mentally be leaving it all on the floor," Gipson said.

Loyola Marymount 60, Santa Clara 56

The Broncos played tough against Loyola last Saturday and came up four points shy of a win. The teams traded points back forth throughout the match, but the Lions came out on top 60-56.

"Today we were trying to capitalize on Lena. They could guard her on the inside and we were trying to give it to her all day. We just came up short. That was our strength, but they match up pretty well with us, except for they couldn't defend Lena so that was our game plan," Shoji said.

Gipson didn't seem to mind the open space as the sophomore had 16 points on the night.

"When there's only one person behind me and there's no double-team coming I'm just like, 'Give me the ball.' I love not having a person on me and it makes me want to do more for my team." Gipson said.

Down 12-7, Santa Clara began to work their way back into the game as Gipson went on six-point run to put the Broncos within three at 16-13.

A three-pointer from freshman guard Noe Vloria gave the Broncos their first lead of the half at 11:49 by a score of 17-16.

After that the teams went point for point. At 6:39 Goss would make the score 25-21 with a jumper to give the Lions a four point lead.

But Santa Clara would respond with an eight-point run to finish the half ahead by two with a score of 29-27.

In the second half, a free throw shot by Loyola's Candice Nichols would tie the score 33-33 at 16:59. Santa Clara would gain a three-point lead by a free throw shot that Shoji made at 13:45 to make the score 40-37.

Shoji would finish the night with 17 points, with 15 of them coming in the second half.

"(I) Started off slow in the second half but I finally got into a bit of a rhythm," Shoji humbly said.

"We did a lot better defensively, I think that was improving and moving the ball inside outside and getting the ball to (Gipson). That's what we needed to do today," Shoji said.

However, an 8-1 run by Loyola would give them the lead by a score of 42-40. The Broncos would rally back and take their own four-point lead from a jump shot by Maggie Goldenberger at 4:03 with the score 52-48.

Neither team would gain a lead bigger than four for the rest of the half. However, it wouldn't be quite enough for Santa Clara as the Lions would win by four to take the contest.

When asked how they are going to do against USF on Saturday, Shoji responded quickly and with confidence.

"We are going to win it."

Contact Margo Consul at mconsul@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.