Nov. 9, 2005
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara University freshman center John Bryant must be thinking this college basketball stuff is pretty easy.
After all, the 6'-11" San Pablo, Calif. native poured-in 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in his debut to lead the Broncos to a 99-47 victory over Holy Names University in front of 1,170 fans Wednesday night at the Leavey Center.
The game was Santa Clara's only scheduled scrimmage prior to its 1 p.m. season opener on Nov. 19 against Cal State Stanislaus. Season tickets, family plans and single game tickets to SCU non-conference games are available online by clicking here.
Senior forward Travis Niesen scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Broncos, while junior guard Brandon Rohe added 14 and sophomore forward Mitch Henke added 11 points and seven rebounds. Rohe, seeing his first action since suffering a back injury late in the 2003-04 season, shot 4-for-6 from behind the three-point stripe and registered a game-high six steals.
Starting forward Josh Dozier led Holy Names with 13 points and equaled a team-high with four rebounds.
The Broncos outscored Holy Names by a 46-14 margin in the second half and limited the Hawks to just 29.3 percent shooting in the contest. HNU also committed 25 turnovers and 25 fouls in the game and all 16 players on its roster saw action.
"It is so hard to judge your team in an exhibition game like this, particularly against an NAIA opponent" said SCU head coach Dick Davey. "Holy Names will most likely turn out to be a pretty good team, but I was a lot more worried about the guys on our team. We used a lot of different combinations and got some looks that we just can't simulate in practice. I was encouraged by a few things, but we need to get some experience with our freshmen and we need to make sure we keep healthy since we are not very deep."
Holy Names, ranked 23rd nationally in the NAIA preseason poll, prevented the Broncos from taking an early lead in the game. Holding a narrow 15-11 lead early in the game, the Broncos went on a 14-2 run that was capped-off by consecutive layups by Bryant, the second after a steal by fellow freshman Calvin Johnson to make the score 29-13 with 10:30 remaining in the first half.
Santa Clara stretched its first half lead to as many as 23 points after Henke connected on two free throws late in the half. Bryant made a layup with :44 seconds remaining to give SCU a 20-point, 53-33 lead at the break.
Ten of the 11 players who saw action scored for Santa Clara. Senior Tristan Parham did not play due to injury. He is listed as questionable for the opener against Cal State Stanislaus.