March 4, 2006
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Diamon Simpson scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Saint Mary's to a 76-72 overtime victory over Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference tournament Saturday.
Third-seeded Saint Mary's (16-11), hit 9 of 12 free throws in overtime to advance to Sunday's semifinal against Loyola Marymount.
After Simpson missed a free throw with 13.6 seconds left in regulation, Santa Clara's Joey Kaempf hit a 3-pointer as time expired to tie it 62-62 and send the game into overtime. Kaempf led all scorers with 21 points, hitting 6 of 9 from beyond the arc.
John Winston had 18 points for the Gaels, Brett Collins added 15 and Todd Golden had 13 for Saint Mary's.
Santa Clara (14-15), the tournament's sixth seed, held Daniel Kickert, Saint Mary's all-time leading scorer, to 5 points.
Brody Angley had 18 points for the Broncos and Travis Niesen added 11. Mitch Henke grabbed nine rebounds for Santa Clara.
Santa Clara trailed for most of the first period, but Kaempf hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:15 minutes to give the Broncos a 31-29 halftime lead.
The Gaels beat Loyola Marymount 82-70 in the final game of the season to tie for second place in the conference, but LMU got the second seed because of a tiebreaker.