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Santa Clara, 5-5, will play its final game of the 48th annual Cable Car Classic on Tues., Dec. 23 at 2 pm. The Broncos will face off vs. the Cal Poly Mustangs, 5-5, before they take a couple of days off for the holidays before opening West Coast Conference play at Saint Mary's on Dec. 27 at 1 pm. The Cal Poly game will be broadcast on the Broncos' All-Access network at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com. Anthony Passarelli is in his eighth season as the Broncos' play-by-play announcer.
After opening the year at 3-0 at home, Santa Clara dropped its first home game of the year on Dec. 20, falling 78-72 to Northeastern. Five Broncos scored in double figures for the first time since Feb. 2, 2013 game at BYU. Jared Brownridge led the team with 18, Nate Kratch added a career-high 15 with Matt Hubbard (12), Denzel Johnson (13) and Brandon Clark (10) rounding out the double-digit scoring.
Cal Poly will be playing its fourth WCC team this season. It lost 82-56 at Saint Mary's on Nov. 26, won 78-71 at USF on Dec. 15 and lost 63-60 to No. 8 Gonzaga on Dec. 20 in Seattle.
The Broncos are 4-2 vs. the Mustangs all-time, including a 64-53 loss in San Luis Obispo, Calif. on Dec. 7, 2013.
Santa Clara-Cal Poly History
at Cal Poly 64, SCU 53 (Dec. 7, 2013)
at SCU 72 Cal Poly 64 (Dec. 17, 2012)
at SCU 73 Cal Poly 58 (Dec. 10,2005)
at Cal Poly 98 SCU 89 (Dec. 12, 2004)
at SCU 59 Cal Poly 48 (Dec. 23, 1982)
at SCU 77 Cal Poly 62 (Dec. 13, 1978)
Career
Nate Kratch scored a career-high 15 points off the bench on Saturday vs. Northeastern. His previous career high 11 points at Cal Poly on Dec. 7, 2013. Kratch collected a season-high eight boards. He was seven of 10 from the free throw line, also career bests.
Matt Hubbard added a few career bests in the Northeastern game as well. He had career highs in points (12), rebounds (9). He also tied career highs in field goals and threes made. Starting eight of the 10 games this season, he leads the team with 4.9 rpg.
Brownridge and Clark Lead The Broncos
The Broncos return the WCC's top-scoring back-court, Jared Brownridge (15.7 ppg, 2014-15; 17.2 ppg, 2013-14) and Brandon Clark (16.7 ppg, 2014-15; 16.9 ppg, 2013-14).
Brownridge has started each of the 43 career games he has played in dating back to last season. He led the team with 95 three pointers a season ago and has already hit 31 this season. His 567 points last year scored shattered the SCU freshman record and placed him at No. 2 all-time in points scored for a Bay Area freshman (list includes SCU, Stanford, Cal, Saint Mary's, San Francisco and Pacific). He finished his freshman year with 24 points vs. Gonzaga in the WCC quarterfinals, as the Broncos fell 77-75 on a last second layup by the Zags' David Stockton.
Clark has started 47 of the 111 games he has played in during his four-year career. Clark had his streak of 25 straight games in double figures snapped at Utah State when he scored nine. It dated back to Dec. 13, 2013. It was the longest streak for a Bronco since Travis Niesen scored double figures in 22 straight games (Feb. 5, 2005-Jan. 21, 2006). Last season Clark collected 13 games of 20+ points. He did not have a single 20+ game his first two years.
Sidelined
The Broncos will be without the services of forwards Yannick Atanga (6-8, 230) and Emmanuel Ndumanya (6-9, 270). Atanga had surgery to repair his ACL on Dec. 16 and is out for the remainder of the season. Ndumanya has a left foot injury that has caused him to miss the past eight games.
Brandon
Brandon Clark is No. 25 on the all-time points scored list with 1,209. He needs 72 points to move to No. 20, passing Ralph Ogden (1,280, 1967-70). Clark is tied for No. 3 all-time in free throw percentage. He has made 318 of his 382 free throws attempted, good for 83.3 percent. The school record is held by Steve Nash (86.1 percent, 1991-96).