Broncos Face Sooners in Second Round of 76 Classic in Winner's Bracket

Posted: Nov 25, 2011

With its 79-76 overtime win over pre-tournament favorite New Mexico, Santa Clara continues play at the 76 Classic on Friday night with a 9 pm match-up vs. Oklahoma on ESPN2. Mark Neely and Miles Simon will make the call in the nationally-televised game. Oklahoma advanced with a 75-59 win over Washington State on Thursday night.

The winner advances to the 76 Classic Championship on ESPN2 on Sun., Nov. 27 at 6 pm. The winner of the Santa Clara-Oklahoma game will play the winner of the Saint Louis-Villanova game. The two losing teams will play at 3:30 pm on ESPNU on Sun., Nov. 27 in the consolation game.

76 Classic Schedule

Second Round Schedule Friday, Nov. 25 | All times PDT
Game 5: Villanova vs. Saint Louis -- 11:30 a.m., ESPN 
Game 6: Boston College vs. UC Riverside -- 2 p.m., ESPN2
Game 7: New Mexico vs. Washington State -- 6:30 p.m., ESPNU
Game 8: Oklahoma vs. Santa Clara -- 9 p.m., ESPN2

Final Round Schedule Sunday, Nov. 27 | All times PDT

Game 9: Loser Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7 -- 10:30 a.m.
Game 10, Third Place: Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 7 -- 1 p.m., ESPNU
Game 11: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8 -- 3:30 p.m., ESPNU
Game 12, First Place: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 8 -- 6 p.m., ESPN2

Vs. the Sooners

Santa Clara is 0-1 all-time vs. Oklahoma, falling to the No. 20 Sooners on Nov. 27, 1983 91-77 in the consolation game of the Great Alaska Shootout.

Santa Clara advanced to the winner's bracket with a 79-76 overtime win over New Mexico. Evan Roquemore and Kevin Foster both posted 26 points and Niyi Harrison scored a career-high 19. While the Broncos were 26 of 34 from the line, the Lobos were 31 of 33.

The Broncos

Kevin Foster moved to No. 7 on the West Coast Conference career three-pointers list, passing LMU's Terrell Lowery with his five threes vs. New Mexico. Foster needs two threes to break Steve Nash's Bronco school record with 263 career threes from 1993-96 (see note on page three).

With three starters averaging double figures, Santa Clara has had two blow-out wins on its home court (vs. UC Merced and San Jose State) and an 89-58 loss at UC Santa Barbara, an NCAA Tournament team the past two years prior to coming to Anaheim. With the loss of All-WCC forward Marc Trasolini (torn ACL), Santa Clara might be the youngest team in the country with its 11 scholarship players this season totalling eight years of total court time (no seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen). While the Broncos start three juniors and two sophomores, the next six players off the bench, including walk-on Jordan Akwenuke, are all freshmen. In addition to leadership, the Broncos are without their top three rebounders from last season (Trasolini and graduation of Ben Dowdell and Troy Payne).

SCU finished last season 24-14 and won the CIT post-season tournament with All-WCC First Team guard Kevin Foster collecting MVP honors. Foster was named to the 2011 pre-season All-WCC team this season for the third time in his career after leading the country in threes (140) and the league in scoring (20.2 ppg) in 2010-11.

See and Hear

The SCU-OU game will be broadcast live nationally on ESPNU at 9 p.m. on Fri., Nov. 25. The Oklahoma game will also be broadcast via the Bronco Radio Network on both KDOW 1220 AM and Broncos All-Access at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com with the broadcast beginning at 8:45 p.m. Anthony Passarelli is in his fifth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer. Out of the listening area, KDOW is streamed online at www.1220kdow.com.

Fast Firsts

* Niyi Harrison had a career high 19 points, playing a career-high 44 minutes vs. New Mexico

* Kevin Foster and Evan Roquemore had a season-best 26 points a piece in the New Mexico win. Roquemore was a perfect 8 of 8 from the line. It was the 15th time in his career he has been perfect from the free throw line in a game.

* John McArthur collected his first career double-double vs. San Jose State with a career-best19 points (11 of 11 from the free throw line) and 10 rebounds.

* Niyi Harrison scored a career-high 18 points vs. San Jose State.

* Santa Clara made 14 threes vs. UC Merced. Led by Kevin Foster's five, Evan Roquemore and Brandon Clark both chipped in four each.

Climbing Quick

Last season Kevin Foster assaulted the WCC and Santa Clara record books with 140 threes made and 380 threes attempted. His 3.68 threes per game led the nation and the 140 threes was good enough for No. 9 all-time in NCAA history.

This season he has hit 15 winners and is just two threes from breaking the career record set by Steve Nash from 1992-96 when he made 263. As a junior, he is already No. 7 on the WCC career list and needs 13 to hit the top 5 and 102 to break the WCC career record held by Jeff Fryer of LMU (363, 1987-90).

He is climbing up the Bronco career scoring list as well. At No. 11 with 1,441, he needs six to pass Mike Stewart at No. 10 (1,446, 1970-73) and 295 to catch school record holder Kurt Rambis (1,736, 1976-80).

Foster's met Rambis on a number of occasions. His daughter Ali is a sophomore on the SCU volleyball team and Rambis had his jersey retired Foster's freshman year during the Cable Car Classic.

In Dallas last March for its CIT game at SMU, the team and coaches stopped by the Timberwolves hotel, in town to play the Mavs that night, to say hello to former Bronco and then-NBA head coach Kurt Rambis. Rambis greeted each player and staff member with a big handshake and a smile. When Coach Keating introduced him to Foster, Foster smiled when Coach Keating said he was chasing his points scored career mark and Rambis remarked with a smile, "I hope you get it."

WCC CAREER RECORD Threes Made

1. Jeff Fryer (LMU 1987-90) 363

2. Jared Stohl (UOP 2007-11) 336

3. Blake Stepp (GON 2000-04) 288

4. Richie Frahm (GON 1997-00) 280

5. Craig Davis (PEP 1985-90) 274

6. Steve Nash (SCU 1993-96) 263

7. Kevin Foster (SCU 2008-) 262

8. Terrell Lowery (LMU 1989-92) 261

BRONCO CAREER RECORDS

1000 Career Points Scored

1. Kurt Rambis (1976-80) 1,736