Posted: Jan 26, 2019
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In a tale of two halves, James Batemon scored 20 points and Dameane Douglas added 16 along with 10 rebounds for Loyola Marymount which came back in the second half to post a 69-61 victory over Santa Clara men's basketball in a Saturday night West Coast Conference matchup.
Trey Wertz scored a team-high 13 points and Josh Martin had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Broncos (11-11, 3-5) who shot just 27 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
LMU (15-6, 3-4) erased a Broncos 38-29 halftime lead with a 15-0 run in the second half to take the lead for good. Jeffery McClendon's 3-pointer broke a 45-all tied at the 11:15 mark to give the Lions their first advantage of the game.
Behind its hot shooting and full court pressure defense, LMU eventually pushed its lead to 12 with five minutes left but the Broncos cut it to five with less than a minute remaining. However, the Lions, who snapped a four-game road losing streak, closed out by hitting 6 of 8 from the free-throw line in the final 58 seconds.
LMU shot 59 percent in the second half while getting the Broncos big men into foul trouble.
The 7-foot-3 LMU center Mattias Markusson, who scored 13 and pulled down six boards, was a handful for the Broncos trio of Guglielmo Caruso, Henrik Jadersten and Ezekiel Richards to handle.
Jadersten eventually fouled out after scoring nine points and Caruso was limited to four minutes on the court and had four fouls. Richards picked up three fouls in the opening half.
Wertz (11) and Jadersten (six) combined for all the scoring to help Santa Clara jump to a 17-5 lead. The duo shot 7 of 9 including 3-for-3 from behind the 3-point line by Wertz.
After leading as many as 14 points in the first half, McClendon and Batemon hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Broncos lead to 22-14 with six minutes left.
Martin answered back with a 3-pointer of his own, the first of three in the half, to push the lead out to double digits, which the Broncos maintained for much of the opening 20 minutes.
The Broncos shot 54 percent from the field in the first half, before being outscored 40-23 in the second half.
Broncos leading scorer Tahj Eaddy was held to 10 points on 3 of 13 shooting.
Douglas, a freshman, notched his second-career double-double.
HIGHLIGHTS | Helpers plus and ones from tonight's bout against Loyola Marymount! #StampedeAhead #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/Won5RRDjyH
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 27, 2019
NOTES
• In a series that began in 1937, Santa Clara holds a 91-61 lead. The teams have split the regular-season series in five of the last six years, and will face each other again at LMU on Feb. 28.
• Josh Martin recorded his fourth double-double of the season and 12th of his career.
NEXT UP
The Broncos face Portland next Saturday to close out its three game homestand. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.
