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Santa Clara closes out its regular season home schedule this week with two long-time rivals, Pacific and Saint Mary's. The Broncos will host Pacific on Thurs., Feb. 20 at 7 pm. The game will be shown live on TheW.tv with Rich Cellini and John Stege making the call. It will also be broadcast live on SantaClaraBroncos.com as part of the Bronco Radio Network. Anthony Passarelli is in his seventh season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer.
Santa Clara will host Saint Mary's on Sat., Feb. 22 at 1 pm as the Comcast WCC Game of the Week. The game will also be broadcast live on KLIV 1590 AM. Santa Clara will celebrate its seniors so arrive early for the pre-game ceremony!
The Broncos are 11-16 and 4-10 in the WCC. Pacific is 14-11 and 5-9 in the WCC. Saint Mary's will play at USF on Thursday night and the Gaels enter the week with a 19-8 record, including 9-5 in the WCC. SMC and USF are currently tied for third place in the WCC, Pacific is in seventh place and the Broncos sit in ninth.
Three Broncos have averaged double figures all season: Brandon Clark, Jared Brownridge and Evan Roquemore. With Clark and Brownridge starting each of Santa Clara's 27 games this year, Clark averages 17.0 and Brownridge 16.7. Roquemore adds 10.7 ppg off the bench. In WCC games, Brownridge is averaging 18.6 ppg, Clark adds 18.1 and Roquemore 10.3.
Prior to this year, Clark hadn't scored 20+ points in a college or high school game since he scored 29 in an AAU game in eighth grade. Clark is having an All-WCC-type season as he has scored 20+ 13 times this season, including 20+ in eight of the 14 WCC games this year. His 13 20+ games are tied for third-most since 2000-01. Tops on the list since 2000-01 - Kevin Foster scored 20+ 20 times in 2012-13.
Brownridge has scored 20+ points 11 times this year - second-best for a Bronco freshman since 1990-91. Foster scored 20+ points 11 times his freshman season. Brownridge has led the Broncos in scoring 11 times this year and has scored double-digits in 21 games.
Pacific
Santa Clara leads the all-time series 89-42 vs. UOP, with SCU winning the last two of three contests. The two teams have split the last 10 games evenly with both winning five games each.
Pacific, along with SCU, was an original member of what is now the WCC, joining in 1952-53 to form the California Basketball Association. Pacific left the league in 1971, but accepted an invitation back to the WCC beginning on July 1, 2013.
Last Time
On a cold shooting day for SCU, the Broncos lost 80-68 at Pacific on Jan. 11, 2014. Santa Clara shot 35.2 percent from the field, including 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Broncos shot 75.9 percent from the free throw line (22 of 29). SCU was led by Brandon Clark's 20 points, four assists and four rebounds. Evan Roquemore scored 19 with three rebounds and two assists.
Pacific shot 53.8 percent from the field, including 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. The Tigers shot 75.0 percent free throw line (18 of 24). UOP was led by Sama Taku, who scored 19 points off the bench for the Tigers. Andrew Bock scored 16 and Trevin Harris added 13.
55 More
With 945 career points, Brandon Clark will be the next Bronco to reach 1,000 career points. He will be the 32nd Bronco with 1,000 plus points in his career and the seventh under head coach Kerry Keating.
The team's lone 1,000+ career point scorer, Roquemore missed the first four games with a back injury. Roquemore sits at No. 12 with 1,563 career points. He needs nine points to pass No. 11 Kyle Bailey (1,571, 2001-05) and with 24 points he will pass No. 10 Ken Sears (1,586 points, 1951-55).
Last year's Bronco team was the first team in WCC history to feature four 1,000 point career scorers. Along with Roquemore, the team had Kevin Foster (No. 1, 2,423 points), Marc Trasolini (No. 5, 1,699 points) and Raymond Cowels III (No. 26, 1,090 points).
Roq Climbing
Evan Roquemore enters the Pacific game with 563 career assists, a Bronco school record. Roquemore broke the Bronco career assists record vs. Radford on Dec. 16 with a dandy dish to Jared Brownridge in the first half, topping Brian Jones (517, 1996-2001). Last year Roquemore set the single season assists record with 196, topping John Woolery (190, 1993-94).
Roquemore has collected an assist in 126 of 129 career games. He was credited with no assists three times this year: at Cal Poly, vs. Gonzaga and at BYU. Looking back, Jones missed an assist in just three games (Dec. 21, 1996 at Pacific, Jan. 22, 1997 at USF; and March 4, 2000 vs. USF). Jones only had one game his final three years without an assist (USF, 2000). Steve Nash had eight games his freshman year with no assists, but the final three years of his career he had at least one assist in every game he played in during his Bronco career.
Roquemore is No. 9 all-time in the WCC, passing Gonzaga's John Stockton (554, 1980-84) vs. Portland on Feb. 1. He needs nine assists to pass Portland's Darwin Cook (573, 1976-80).
He's just the third player in school history to collect 1,500+ points and 500+ assists. The other two: Jones (1,722 pts., 517 asts., 1996-01) and Nash (1,689 pts., 510 asts., 1992-96).
Breaking Good
If the season finished today, Brownridge would break the freshman school records for points per game, three point field goal percentage and free throw percentage. Those records belong to Kurt Rambis and Steve Nash.
Brownridge averages 16.7 ppg and Rambis averaged 15.3 his freshman year (1976-77). Brownridge hits 41.5 percent of his threes and Nash scored 40.8 percent (1992-93). Nash also scored 82.5 percent of his free throws and Brownridge is making 86.1 percent from the free throw line.
With at least five games left, Brownridge is now on pace to shatter two of Kevin Foster's records from his freshman year (2008-09). Foster scored 486 points and made 85 threes his freshman year. Brownridge, who has scored 452 points and made 73 threes, averages 16.7 ppg and 2.7 threes per game. If he hits his averages in the next five plus games, he would score at least 535 points and make at least 86 threes - both new freshman records. Those numbers would put him at No. 15 all-time in a single season for points and No. 3 all-time for threes in a single season.
Brandon
Brandon Clark is the team leader with 17.0 ppg, 3.4 apg and 1.3 spg. If he finishes the season at the top of all three, he would be the first Bronco since Brandon Rohe in 2002-03 to do this (10.6 ppg, 2.4 apg, 1.0 spg). Clark scored zero points in the season opener vs. Bethesda, but has since scored double figures in 23 of the last 26 games. Clark has scored 20+ in eight of 14 WCC games this season. All told, Clark has scored 20+ 13 times this year, including a career-high 32 points vs. N.D. State on Nov. 29. During a four-game span (Nov. 12-29), he scored 21+ points in each game; and he was the fourth Bronco player since 2007-08 to accomplish this feat. Scoring 30 points vs. Sacred Heart on Dec. 18, he was the 13th Bronco in school history to have multiple 30+ point games in a single season.
Clark has scored almost 1/4 of his points at the free throw line this year, hitting 85.7 percent (108 of 126). + Clark scored a WCC career-high with 26 points vs. LMU on Jan. 4 (career high is 32 vs. North Dakota State on Nov. 29). Half of Clark's points vs. the Lions came at the free throw line, as the East Chicago, Ind. native went 13 of 14 from the free throw line.
Jared
Jared Brownridge is the top scoring freshman in the WCC and should receive serious consideration for WCC Freshman of the Year. He is averaging 18.6 ppg in WCC play, which is No. 2 in the league and tops among the rookies. He has scored 20+ 11 times already this season, including six times in WCC play; and barely missed 20 vs. USD on Jan. 16 (19 points). Brownridge leads the Broncos in threes made (73) and attempted (176). Brownridge is shooting a team-high 41.5 percent beyond the arc. He and Kevin Foster are the only two Bronco freshman to hit 70+ threes as rookies.
Brownridge has started all 27 games this season and he has scored 16+ points in 17 games thus far, including 14 games with 3+ threes made and 21 double-figure games. Much of his scoring has been beyond the arc as he has hit 73 threes. Brownridge has collected 5+ threes four times. Foster accomplished this feat three times in his 33-game rookie season (5 vs. Arizona, Nov. 25, 2008; at Saint Mary's, Jan. 9, 2009; and at LMU, Feb. 14, 2009). All told, Foster scored seven threes twice, eight threes twice and nine threes once (the school record for a single game).
Brownridge scored a career-high 30 points vs. BYU on Jan. 18, adding four threes and hitting 8 of 8 free throws. He followed that performance up with 30 points at USF on Jan. 25, adding five threes and scoring 9 of 10 from the free throw line. Only three Bronco player have had back-to-back 30+ point games: Dennis Awtrey (March 1 and 7, 1969); Kurt Rambis (Jan. 4 and 5, 1980) and Kevin Foster (March 25 and 27, 2013). Awtrey and Rambis both scored 30+ in back-to-back WCC games as did Brownridge and Foster's came in SCU's CBI title run at Purdue and Wright State. He is the 17th Bronco in school history to have multiple 30+ point games and the 14th in school history to do it more than once in a single season. He has scored single digits just twice in WCC play this season (7 at Pacific, 6 vs. Gonzaga). He has a three in every game this year with the exception of at BYU on Feb. 6 (0-6), vs. Gonzaga on Jan. 29 (0-1) and vs. Sacred Heart on Dec. 18 (0 for 3).
Brownridge and Brandon Clark are just the second set of Bronco teammates to have multiple 30 point games in the same season. The only other set of SCU teammates to accomplish this: Rambis and Londale Theus did in the 1979-80 season. Theus scored 30+ twice that season (Jan. 25, 1980 and March 2, 1980) and Rambis scored 30+ three times (Jan. 4, 1980, Jan. 5, 1980 and Jan. 25, 1980).
Us Among the WCC
Santa Clara leads the WCC in turnover margin at +1.9 and is second in blocked shots with 4.4 bpg and threes made with 7.6 per game. In league play the Broncos are the top shooting free throw team, hitting 76.3 percent (184 of 241) and also lead with 7.5 threes per game. They are second in league games with 4.6 bpg.
Jared Brownridge trails only USD's Johnny Dee among the WCC leaders with 2.7 threes per game. Brandon Clark is No. 4 and Brownridge is No. 5 in scoring in the WCC. The Brownridge-Clark duo is No. 6 and No. 7 in free throw percentage.
In league play, Brownridge is No. 2 in scoring - the top freshman - and Clark is No. 3. Brownridge is No. 2 in threes made, No. 3 in free throw percentage and No. 3 in minutes played.