Santa Clara - Pepperdine Game Notes
The Broncos, who played three of their first four West Coast Conference contests on the road and finished a three-game WCC homestand vs. Bay Area rival San Francisco on Thursday, travel to Malibu to play at Pepperdine on Sat. Jan. 28 for a 7 pm non-televised contest with the Waves. It is Santa Clara's fourth game in eight days and the 123rd meeting between the two schools. Santa Clara leads over 68-54, but Pepperdine leads 35-21 in Malibu.
Last 12 SCU-PEP meetings:
SCU 71, PEP 68 (Feb. 26, 2011
SCU 71, PEP 59 (Jan. 27, 2011)
SCU 62, PEP 54 (Feb. 13, 2010)
PEP 61, SCU 60 (Jan. 14, 2010)
PEP 66, SCU 60 (Feb 12, 2009)
SCU 64, PEP 52 (Jan 31, 2009)
PEP 64, SCU 58 (Feb 16, 2008)
SCU 101, PEP 86 (Jan 21, 2008)
PEP 89, SCU 82 ot (Feb 26,2007)
SCU 77, PEP 55 (Jan 29, 2007)
SCU 62, PEP 56 (Feb. 27, 2006)
PEP 65, SCU 45 (Jan. 23, 2006)
Santa Clara is 8-11 and 0-6 in the WCC this season. Santa Clara fell 74-62 to LMU in the Leavey Center on Monday and then lost 90-77 to USF on Thursday. Against the Lions, Evan Roquemore led the team with 17 points off the bench. Starting his second career game, Yannick Atanga dumped in 12 points with nine rebounds and Niyi Harrison scored 11 points with nine boards. Against the Dons, freshman Denzel Johnson came off the bench to pour in a career-best 26 points, a season-high for a Bronco this season in the WCC. The Broncos will again be without the services of leading scorer Kevin Foster. As a result of an incident last weekend, Foster will be withheld from competition pending the outcome of the University's student judicial process (he also missed the LMU and USF games).
Pepperdine is working under the direction of first year head coach Marty Wilson, a 1989 graduate of Pepperdine. The Waves are 7-13 and 1-8 in the WCC, including 4-5 at home (1-3 in WCC play at home). They fell 65-56 at San Diego Thursday night. Wilson's first WCC victory as a head coach came at home in his WCC coaching debut when the Waves dumped USF 77-61 on Dec. 29, 2011.
The Waves are led by Darby Taylor's 11.8 ppg. Corbin Moore grabs a team-leading 8.5 rpg and is second on the team with 9.6 ppg.
See and Hear
The Pepperdine 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 6:45 p.m. on KDOW 1220AM. 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.
27 Years in the Making
Sweeping the regular season vs. the Waves for the first time in 27 years last season, Santa Clara won 71-58 at Pepperdine on Jan. 27, 2011 and then 71-68 on Senior Night on Feb. 26 in the Leavey Center. Prior to last season Santa Clara's last regular-season sweep over the Waves was a 77-63 win on Jan. 19, 1984 in Santa Clara and a 62-56 victory on March 3, 1984 in Malibu. Prior to last year's series sweep, Santa Clara and Pepperdine split the season series each of the last eight years with the home team winning seven of those meetings.
The Broncos
Santa Clara, 8-11 and 0-6 in the WCC, are in search of its first road win this season. They have two wins on a neutral court: 79-76 vs. New Mexico and 65-64 vs. Villanova back in November in Anaheim, but they are 0-6 on the opponent's floor.
The Broncos have three players averaging double figures: Kevin Foster leads team with 17.8 ppg, Evan Roquemore scores 14.0 ppg and Niyi Harrison 11.0 ppg. Roquemore leads the team with 5.3 apg. Harrison leads the team with 6.5 rpg.
Three Broncos average double figures in conference play with Foster leading with 15.6 ppg, Harrison with 14.0 and Roquemore 13.0 ppg. Harrison is the leading rebounder in league play with 5.7 rpg and Roquemore leads the team with 4.0 apg. Harrison scored a career-high 23 points vs. No. 23 Saint Mary's on Jan. 21.
Harrison has 10 7+ rebound games this year, pulling down nine rebounds with a career-high 23 points vs. Saint Mary's. He has three double-doubles in his career, John McArthur has two and Roquemore has one (points and assists).
Raymond Cowels III has 3+ threes in eight of the last 16 games, including a career-high six 3s vs. Villanova.
The Broncos are No. 11 nationally with 8.5 threes per game and also lead the WCC. The Broncos have shot 130 more threes than their opponents this season. SCU has shot 470 and the opponents have shot 340. In return, the Broncos have made 46 more than their opponents (167 to 121 made). Of the 1,170 shots attempted by the Broncos this year, 40.2 % have come beyond the arc. The opponents are shooting 35.6 percent beyond the arc and 31.1 percent of their field goal attempts are coming from beyond the arc.
With the loss of All-WCC forward Marc Trasolini (torn ACL), Santa Clara is one of the youngest teams 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). Prior to Foster being withheld, while the Broncos started three juniors and two sophomores, the next six players off the bench, including walk-on Jordan Akwenuke, are all freshmen and a freshman will most likely take Foster's place in the line-up. In addition to leadership, SCU is without its top three rebounders from last season (Trasolini and graduation of Ben Dowdell and Troy Payne).
Looking back, SCU finished last season 24-14 and won the post-season CIT with All-WCC guard Foster collecting MVP honors.