Men's Basketball Ends Stretch of Three Straight on the Road, Faces Pacific Saturday

Men's Basketball Ends Stretch of Three Straight on the Road, Faces Pacific Saturday

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's basketball looks to salvage a win from its stretch of three straight road games in a meeting against Pacific on Saturday.

Tipoff between the Broncos and Tigers (10-9, 1-4) is set for 7 p.m. from Alex G. Spanos Center.

After winning six of seven, Santa Clara (10-9, 2-3) has dropped two straight, including a 75-55 loss at Saint Mary's on Thursday. Jordan Ford posted 18 points and Malik Fitts scored 10 and corralled nine rebounds for Saint Mary's. Guglielmo Caruso tallied a career-best 16 points and Trey Wertz added 15 for the Broncos who went only 2 of 12 from behind the 3-point line.

The Tigers are 7-3 at home, but have dropped their last two. Santa Clara is 2-4 on the road.

QUICK HITS...
Tahj Eaddy (16.2 ppg) is first among four Santa Clara players scoring in double figures. Josip Vrankic is averaging 13.2 points and 5.9 rebounds (second on the team) per game. Vrankic also ranks fifth in the WCC in blocked shots (1.2 pg). Trey Wertz (12.0) ranks first on the league freshman scoring list and fifth overall in assists (4.9 pg). Keshawn Justice, another freshman, is scoring at a 10.7 point-per-game clip. Josh Martin is the leading rebounder at 8.7 per contest (No. 3 in the WCC) and is the most efficient 3-point shooter (45.8 percent) in the league.
• After a 1-5 start, the Broncos have gone 9-4 with a roster that receives 75.8 percent (1,020 of 1,346 points) of its offensive production from first-year players. They are shooting 47.6 percent from the floor in the last 13 games after hitting only 41.2 in the first six. Field-goal percentage defense is also down in that stretch (44.1 to 42.0), but the biggest improvement is at the 3-point line where the opposition is being held to 30.2 percent in the most recent 13 contests, compared to 34.9 in the opening six. Santa Clara limits long-range attempts. The Broncos are No. 23 in the nation in percentage (32.4) of 3-point tries to total field goal attempts, according to KenPom.com.
• Injuries have plagued the Broncos and shrunk the rotation to eight players. Five players have missed games this season, including three currently on the shelf. Two-time All-WCC guard KJ Feagin (foot) and Juan Ducasse (knee) are out for the season. Fallou Ndoye (foot) is out of action indefinitely.
• The Broncos and Tigers rank in the middle of the pack in most WCC statistical categories. However, Santa Clara is third in the league in blocked shots (3.8 pg) and Pacific is first in free-throw percentage (76.3) and have the second-most attempts (476). The Broncos are 10th in turnover margin (-3.4) and the Tigers are 10th in assist-to-turnover ratio (0.8-to-1)
• Santa Clara's recent six-game winning streak (Dec. 9-Jan. 3) was its longest in six years. The Broncos won six in a row from Dec. 8-22, 2013.
• The win over Washington State on Dec. 29, gave the Broncos a pair of victories over Pac-12 Conference schools in the same season for the first time since 1997-98. Santa Clara also snapped a streak of 11 straight road/neutral site losses to Pac-12/Pac-10 schools. The last victory occurred at Stanford (62-46) on Dec. 16, 2006. 

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Tickets Click Here
TV None
Video TheW.tv
Radio/Audio KDOW-AM 1220
Live Stats Statbroadcast.com
Game Notes Santa Clara | Pacific

 

YEAR THREE UNDER SENDEK...
The Broncos are in their 112th year of existence, including third under Herb Sendek, who has been successful in each of his three previous head-coaching stops. With a resume that includes 18 postseason appearances and three conference coach of the year awards, Sendek, was one of the three youngest coaches with 400 or more career victories. He is in his 25th season as a collegiate head coach with stops at Arizona State, North Carolina State and Miami (Ohio).

NEW-LOOK ROSTER...
• Guard KJ Feagin, and forwards Henrik Jadersten and Josip Vrankic were the only returning rotational players this season. Feagin, a three-year starter, is a two-time All-West Coast Conference selection who averaged 17.5 points per game (fifth in the league) and 4.0 assists pg (ninth in the league) in 2017-18. Jadersten, a senior, appeared in 84 games his first three years and Vrankic was one of the more productive freshmen in the WCC during 2017-18. Vrankic was third on the team in both scoring (10.4 ppg) and rebounding (4.6 pg).
• Sophomore guard Tahj Eaddy is eligible this season after sitting out 2017-18. He transferred from Southeast Missouri last summer.
• There are eight additions to the 2018-19 squad, including five true freshmen in Guglielmo Caruso (Naples, Italy), Juan Ducasse (Montevideo, Uruguay), Keshawn Justice (Madison, Wisconsin), Zeke Richards (Oak Park, California) and Trey Wertz (Charlotte, North Carolina). Fallou Ndoye, DJ Mitchell and Josh Martin are transfers. Ndoye (CSU Bakersfield) and Martin (Cal Poly) are graduate transfers. Mitchell played the last two seasons at Wake Forest and will sit out 2018-19.

THE PACIFIC SERIES...
The Broncos have a 96-45 edge in a series that dates to 1905. This is the sixth season the Tigers have been a member of the West Coast Conference, with the Broncos leading 7-4 in that span. But the teams have faced each other every season since 1994-95. The 141games played are the fifth-most among Santa Clara opponents. Santa Clara has won four of the last five meetings in Stockton.

RADIO/LIVE STREAM
Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) and John Stege (analyst) call the action during the season on radio and through TheW.tv at home. All Broncos home games and West Coast Conference contests (not on an ESPN platform or BYUtv) will also be streamed through TheW.tv (local blackout restrictions apply for games broadcast over the air). This season at least 25 games will air on either KDOW-AM 1220 or KTRB-AM 860. The remainder can be heard on Livestream.com. The Pacific game can be heard on KDOW-AM 1220. Click here to view broadcast outlets for the season.

TICKETS
Single-game and gameplan options are available for remaining home games. For questions, contact the Santa Clara Athletics ticket office at (408) 554-4660 or BroncoTickets@scu.edu.

FAN EXPERIENCE PACKAGES
Group-ticket options and Fan Experience Packages are available through the Santa Clara ticket office, which is open weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Contact Jesse Moreno, one of our sales and service consultants, at (408) 554-4628 or jmoreno@scu.edu for further details.

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