IRVINE, Calif. – The inside-outside tandem of juniors Mamadou Ndaiye (15 points/seven rebounds) and Luke Nelson (20 points/six assists) led UC Irvine to a 79-61 victory over the Santa Clara men's basketball team Monday night in the opening contest of the DIRECTV Wooden Legacy.

The 7-foot-6 Ndaiye, a matchup nightmare for most teams, was 5-for-8 from the field in just 22 minutes of action. He also had three blocks and altered a number of shots for Santa Clara (0-5), which hit only 25 percent from the field in the game, including just 5 of 31 (16 percent) in the first half when the Anteaters took control.

While the Broncos were only able to hit 1 of their first 21 from the floor, the Anteaters (4-0), who pushed Louisville to the wire in last year's second round NCAA tournament game, were on fire, connecting on 11 of their opening 16 field goals to build a 29-6 lead with less than 8 minutes left in the first half.

"A lot of guys had good looks at the basket and they didn't go down," head coach Kerry Keating said.

Nelson connected on 6 of 8 field goals, including 4-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line, and did not turn the ball over.

Jared Brownridge scored a team-high 19 points for Santa Clara, but was only 3-for-19 from the field after being harassed by the UC Irvine defense.

"It's easy to point to the fact we're not making shots, but it's also based on the fact Jared is getting a lot of attention and guys have to learn how to play off him," Keating said.

The Broncos made a couple runs, but could never cut the lead into single digits. They closed the first half by scoring eight of the final nine points, including a running layup by Brownridge with 1 second on the clock, to cut the deficit to 35-19.

But the Anteaters scored the first six points of the second half. A dunk by Ndaiye at 18:42 pushed the lead to 41-19.

Santa Clara got the deficit to 67-52 on a Brownridge 3-pointer with 4:08 left in the game, but Nelson, the team's leading scorer, answer with a 3-point from the left wing seconds later.

Nate Kratch, who had a career-high 14 rebounds one game after his first career double-double (22 points/12 rebounds vs. UC Riverside), made a short jumper with 2:48 left to cut the lead to 70-56, but the Broncos missed their next six shots from the field.

Kratch had nine points, but was 4-for-11 from the field.

"On the flip side from the poor shooting, what they did in the second half, most notably that veteran group, if we have a veteran group, of [Evan] Wardlow, Jarvis [Pugh], Nate, Kai [Healy] and Jared, is showed what it takes to fight," Keating said. "If we take anything out of this going into the next game, is whoever starts for us next game needs to establish that early."

Santa Clara and UC Irvine are among eight teams competing in the Wooden Legacy. Bracket play in the three-day tournament begins Thursday at Cal State Fullerton. The teams will play again Friday and then move to Anaheim's Honda Center for Sunday's action.

The Broncos will face 11th-ranked Arizona Thanksgiving Day at 8:30 p.m. Pacific (ESPN2). Santa Clara then plays either Providence or Evansville on Friday.

Notes: Santa Clara and UC Irvine met for the third time. UC Irvine won both prior meetings, 70-58 on Dec. 14, 2004, in Santa Clara, and 78-70 on Nov. 22, 2005 in Irvine … freshman forward Henrik Jadersten started for the first time in his career and sophomore guard Evan Wardlow made his first start of the season (second of his career) … the Broncos are in a stretch of four games in seven days and five games in 11 days.