SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In an electric atmosphere at Leavey Center, Santa Clara men's basketball was within striking distance for most of the game, but Gonzaga controlled the paint to earn a hard-fought 87-72 victory on Thursday.
Filip Petrusev scored 20 of his career-high 31 points in the second half to carry the No. 2/2-ranked Bulldogs (22-1, 8-0) to their 14th-straight win and 21st-consecutive triumph over the Broncos.
Petrusev missed just four out of 18 attempts as Gonzaga scored 62 points in the paint. Ryan Woolridge scored 13 and Drew Timme and Admon Gilder added 11 points each for the Bulldogs who shot 49 percent from the floor and out-rebounded the Broncos, 43-32.
DJ Mitchell led three Broncos (17-6, 4-4) in double figures with 17 points. Josip Vrankic recorded a double-double with 15 points and a season-high 12 rebounds while Jalen Williams had 12 points and a career-high five steals.
"We did a lot of great things tonight," Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek said. "We had a lot of good moments, but you have to credit Gonzaga coming in here and getting a road win. At the end of the day, they really hurt us inside, really hurt us in the paint as the stat sheet shouts. We didn't have quite enough good possessions."
Gonzaga, which had won its previous seven West Coast Conference games by an average of 27.6 points, including a 104-54 victory over the Broncos two weeks ago, held a 40-36 edge at intermission but opened the second half taking advantage of several Santa Clara turnovers to push the lead to 53-43 with Petrusev scoring six straight during an 8-2 run. The 6-foot-11 forward ended up one rebound shy of a double-double.
Just as they did all game, the Broncos battled back with Mitchell's 3-pointer cutting the deficit to five with 15:18 left but that was as close as Santa Clara got.
Midway through the second half, the Bulldogs went on a 14-4 run to open up a 15-point lead, their largest of the game.
Another spirited effort by the Broncos chopped the deficit to 73-66 on back-to-back layups by Vrankic, but the Zags closed the game by scoring 10 of the final 14 points.
Mitchell and Tahj Eaddy came off the bench to score a combined 18 points on 7 for 10 shooting from the floor in the first half. All eight of Eaddy's points came in the opening 20 minutes.
Early on, Gonzaga went on a patented run, scoring eight straight to go up 17-8. However, Eaddy stopped the bleeding with a jumper and scored eight of the next 10 Santa Clara points, during a stretch which saw Bulldogs big man Killian Tillie go down with a lower leg injury with 9 minutes left. He did not return.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Williams and Trey Wertz got the Broncos to within 34-33 with 2 minutes left before Petrusev closed out with four of the last six points.
NOTES
• Gonzaga leads, 64-30, in a series that began in 1946. The Bulldogs have won 30 of the last 31, including 21 straight, meetings. Santa Clara's last victory occurred on Jan. 20, 2011, when the Broncos downed the Bulldogs, 85-71, in Leavey Center.
• The Broncos played without starting forward Guglielmo Caruso (lower right leg) for the eighth-straight game. The sophomore was injured against Alcorn State (Dec. 29) and was ruled out indefinitely.
• Santa Clara started 1 of 10 from behind the 3-point line then went 7-for-15 the remainder of the game.
• Gonzaga was whistled for just nine fouls, the fewest by an opponent this season. Mississippi Valley State was called for 10 on Dec. 20.
• Santa Clara was perfect from the free-throw line, but attempted a season-low six. The previous low was 10 against Sacramento State on Dec. 14 and it was the fewest since the Broncos had four against San Jose State on Nov. 24, 2018. The Bulldogs, who came in struggling from the line at 67.2 percent, connected on 16 of 22 attempts (72.7 percent).
• The Broncos dropped to 14-2 this season when scoring at least 70 points. They also lost to Pepperdine, 90-86, last week.
• Josip Vrankic (15 points/12 rebounds) recorded his 10th career double-double, including third this season. He tied Caruso for the team lead.
• Over the last six games, Josip Vrankic is averaging 19.7 points on 54.2 percent (39 of 72) shooting from the field and 7.3 rebounds. He's also attempted 43 of the team's 107 free throws in that span, connecting on 76.7 percent.
• DJ Mitchell (17 points) hit double figures in scoring for the first time in five games. He had 16 in a win over Saint Mary's on Jan. 11. He went 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line.
INTERVIEW | In the postgame interview presented by @ROATweets, head coach @HerbSendek discusses the hard-fought @WCCHoops matchup against 2nd-ranked @ZagMBB.#TeamFirst | #StampedeAhead | #WCCHoops pic.twitter.com/e9Ux7XAs26
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 31, 2020
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