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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Jared Brownridge scored seven of his career-high 29 points in overtime and Brandon Clark hit 7 of 8 free throws in the extra session lifting the Broncos to an 86-81 win over Loyola Marymount in a West Coast Conference tilt Saturday at Leavey Center.
Santa Clara improved to 9-8 overall and evened their WCC record at 2-2. LMU dropped its second straight game and falls to 10-6 overall, 2-2 in WCC play.
"I'm glad we were able to hang on and show some resiliency in overtime," said Broncos' head coach Kerry Keating. "Jared (Brownridge) continues to grow up and get better. We rode our guards today, they played a lot of minutes and got the job done. Jared is only going to get better. He's going to be be very special," Keating added.
Three times in the final three minutes of regulation the Broncos took a two-point lead and the Lions were able to knot the game on each occasion. Two free throws from Brownridge at 2:32 were matched by a pair from Anthony Ireland 12 seconds later.
Clark hit both ends of a one-and-one for a 68-66 lead at 1:55 but Ireland responded with a jumper to tie the game again with 1:44 left. Ireland's jumper from the elbow with 12.1 left tied the game at 70-70 following two Clark free throws with 29.2 left.
Gabe Levin blocked a potential game-winning shot from Evan Roquemore at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
The Broncos started out quickly in the overtime period scoring the first seven points. Brownridge sandwiched a three and a layup around a pair of Clark free throws to stake the Broncos to a 77-70 lead halfway through the OT period.
The fourth 3-pointer of the game for Brownridge lifted him past Steve Nash (49) into fourth place on the SCU freshman record book for made 3-pointers with 50.
"There is no bad team in this league," noted Clark. "We know teams will go on runs and we have to withstand them and be solid."
For the game Santa Clara shot 41.3% from the field (26-of-63), including 40% from beyond the arc (10-of-25) and 88.9% from the free throw line (24-of-27). The Broncos collected 36 rebounds, 8 steals, 18 assists, 4 blocks and 10 turnovers.
Clark added 26 points hitting 13 of 14 free throws for the game and Evan Roquemore scored 10 points with five assists. John McArthur grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds.
LMU shot 49.3% from the field (34-of-69) and missed all 7 3-point attempts. The Lions shot 68.4% from the free throw line (13-of-19) and collected 41 rebounds, 4 steals, 17 assists, 5 blocks and 11 turnovers.
The Lions got within two at 82-80 after Ireland converted a 3-point play with 14.3 left, but Clark drained four free throws in the final 14 seconds to get the Broncos the win.
Ireland scored 20 of LMU's final 23 points on his way to a career-high 34. He hit 12 of 22 field goal attempts and 10 of 12 free throws in his third career 30-point game. Ben Dickinson added 12 while C.J. Blackwell and Evan Payne each scored 10.
"Anthony Ireland has been there, done that before," Keating noted.
Roquemore's 3-pointer at 18:04 of the second broke a tie and gave the Broncos a 40-37 advantage, they would hold the lead until Ireland's elbow jumper tied the game at 64-64 with 2:57 remaining.
Neither team could grab control in the first half that had six ties and seven lead changes. A 3-pointer from Jalen Richard at 15:21, his only bucket of the game, gave the Broncos their first lead at 9-6. The Broncos largest lead of the first half was three, which they were able to grab four times, the last coming on a Jerry Brown tip in with 4:49 to go.
Dickinson's layup with 41 seconds left in the first half gave the Lions a 35-32 lead, but Clark drained a 3-pointer with 5 ticks left to send the teams into the break even at 35-35. Brownridge scored 13 first half points after netting 16 in the first half against Pepperdine on Thursday.
NOTES: The Broncos started Brandon Clark, Evan Roquemore, Jared Brownridge, John McArthur and Yannick Atanga ... Yannick Atanga started for the 6th time this season and the first since Dec. 22 at UNLV ... The first personal foul of the game wasn't called until 10:30 remained in the first half when LMU's Anthony Ireland was called for a hand check ... Santa Clara's first foul came at the 9:30 mark of the first when Yannick Atanga was called for an illegal screen ... The Lions went 0 of 7 from 3-point range and did not make a 3FG for only the third time in program history ... Ireland has scored 20 or more points in 7 of 9 games against the Broncos.
