Broncos Close Out Home Schedule With a Big Game Against San Francisco Monday

Posted: Feb 24, 2008

Feb. 24, 2008

Next Game
The Santa Clara Broncos play their final home game of the 2008 season on Monday, Feb. 25. SCU hosts the San Francisco Dons at the Leavey Center at 7 p.m. PT. The game will mark the final home game for seniors Brody Angley, Mitch Henke, Josh Higgins and Okey Mbanugo. Comcast SportsNet will televise the game locally and fans can also catch the action on 1220 KNTS and SantaClaraBroncos.com. Santa Clara defeated San Francisco 66-48 on Jan. 28 at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco.

Last Game
Santa Clara kept it close throughout, but the San Diego Toreros had too much and pulled out a 66-62 win at the Leavey Center on Feb. 23. John Bryant scored 18 points to reach 1,000 for his career and Brody Angley scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out six assists for SCU. Mitch Henke (16) and Ben Dowdell (11) also reached double figures for the Broncos. SCU led at halftime, but could not hold off San Diego in the second half.

Head Coach Kerry Keating
Santa Clara University named Kerry Keating head coach on April 6, 2007. Keating, 36, comes to SCU with a long coaching backgroud at a number of top programs. He is the 14th head coach in the 101 years of Bronco basketball and he is the first coach hired since Harlan Dykes in 1926 that had not previously attended SCU or served as an assistant coach on the Mission Campus. Most recently, Keating helped UCLA reach back-to-back Final Fours as an assistant coach on Ben Howland's staff in Westwood. He has also served as an assistant at Tennessee, Tulsa, Appalachian State, Seton Hall, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. He is off to a 13-13 start in his career at SCU.

SCU vs. San Francisco
Series Record: SCU leads 104-95 First Meeting: SCU 19-11 win on Jan. 22, 1909 2006-07 at SCU: SCU won 74-62 2006-07 at USF: SCU won 61-88 Record at SCU: SCU leads 52-34 Record at USF: USF leads 49-42 Record at Neutral Site: USF leads 12-10 Biggest SCU Win: 88-50 (38) on Feb. 15, 1989 Biggest USF Win: 78-48 (30) on Feb. 6, 1974 Notes: Santa Clara swept the season series from USF last season for the first time since 2000-01 ... The Broncos have won four straight games against the Dons in the series ... Santa Clara knocked USF out of the WCC Tournament in 2004-05 and 2005-06 ... Dons forward Dior Lowhorn and Broncos forward Decensae White both played at Texas Tech before transfering to San Francisco and Santa Clara, respectively.

Last Game vs. San Francisco
The Santa Clara Broncos earned their sixth road win of season on Jan. 28 with a 66-48 victory over the San Francisco Dons at War Memorial Gym. John Bryant continued his stellar play with 22 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks for his ninth double double of the year. Brody Angley had 11 points and 10 assists, while Calvin Johnson netted 14 points, including four three-pointers. The Broncos led by as many 25 in the second half and hit 10 three-pointers in the game.

Points in the Paint
Led by John Bryant, the Broncos have dominated the paint this season. SCU has won the points in the paint battle 18 times in 26 games. The team is 12-6 when scoring more points in the paint, 1-4 when losing the paint battle and 0-3 when both teams have an equal number of points in the paint.

Angley Hits 1,000
Santa Clara senior Brody Angley reached 1,000 points for his career with a second half free throw on Feb. 4 against the Portland Pilots. He is the 26th player in school history to reach 1,000. With 1,045 points following the Broncos game on Feb. 23, he is now 23rd on the all-time scoring list. He is 25 points behind Dan Weiss (1984-88) for 22nd all-time.

Bryant Nearing 1,000
Center John Bryant reached 1,000 points in his junior season for the Broncos with 18 points on Feb. 23 vs. San Diego. He is the 27th player in school history to accomplish the feat. He hit the 1,000-point barrier with a put back against San Diego for his last basket of the game. He is currently at 1,000 points, 12 behind Glen Hubbard (1972-76) for 26th all-time.

Bryant Rebounding
Junior John Bryant now has 251 rebounds this season after pulling down 15 on Feb. 18. He also has 638 career rebounds. He is 22 rebounds away from entering the top 10 for single season rebounds and 24 away from entering the top 10 all-time in career rebounds at Santa Clara.

Four in Double Figures
Four Broncos scored in double figures against San Diego on Feb. 23, as Brody Angley (14), John Bryant (18), Ben Dowdell (11) and Mitch Henke (16) all hit double digits. The game marked the first time since Jan. 28 at San Francisco that four Broncos reached double figures in the same game.

Shooting Percentage
After shooting 50 percent from the floor against San Diego on Feb. 23, SCU has broken the 50 percent barrier 13 times this season. Santa Clara shot .667 from the floor on Jan. 21 against Pepperdine, tying for the seventh best shooting performance in school history. The season high of .718 was set on Nov. 25 at Sacramento State. That performance at Sacramento State was the second best shooting percentage in Santa Clara history. For the game, SCU hit .718 percent from the field and in the second half, the team hit .864 percent (19-of-22). The all-time program record for shooting in a game is .719, set on Jan. 4, 1980 against Pepperdine.

Angley Racks Up The Minutes
Senior Brody Angley is used to playing a lot of minutes, as he was averaging 28.4 minutes per game for his career coming into this season. However, this year, Angley has been an iron man, playing 36.2 minutes per game to lead the Broncos in that category. In the seven games prior to the Saint Mary's game on Jan. 12, he did not play fewer than 35 minutes in any game. Against Saint Mary's on Jan. 12, foul trouble forced him to play just 31 minutes, his lowest total since he played 31 on Dec. 8 against San Jose State. In the seven games from Jan. 19-Feb. 11, Angley averaged 39.1 minutes per game. He played the entire 40 minutes on Feb. 23 against San Diego.

Bryant's Monster Weekend
Santa Clara junior center John Bryant had one of the best weekends in Bronco basketball history on Feb. 16 and 18. The San Pablo native started the weekend by shooting 11-for-11 on Feb. 16 against Pepperdine and scoring 25 points. He also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked five shots. He ended the night with a streak of 17 straight field goals without a miss. He made his last six shots on Feb. 11 against Saint Mary's to start the streak. He stretched that streak to 19 by making his first two shots against Loyola Marymount on Feb. 18. He would miss his next shot, but finish 15-for-20 against the Lions for 36 points. He also pulled down 15 rebounds and recorded three blocks. The last time a Bronco player scored 36 points was Feb. 21, 1998 when Brian Jones scored 36 against Saint Mary's. Bryant tied for the 14th highest scoring game in school history. The last time any Bronco reached 30 points prior to Bryant was Feb. 20, 2006 when Travis Niesen scored 31 against San Francisco.

Injury Update
Sophomore Zac Tiedeman suffered a left knee sprain on Saturday, Jan. 26 at San Diego. He has missed the past seven games and could be out for the remainder of the season. Andrew Zimmermann was diagnosed with an enlarged spleen last week and did not make the trip to Southern California with the team on Feb. 16 and 18. He did not play against San Diego on Feb. 23 and is doubtful for Feb. 25 against San Francisco.

Bryant Double Doubles
John Bryant had his streak of four straight games with a double double snapped on Feb. 23 against San Diego. He finished with 18 points and six rebounds against the Toreros. Overall, he has notched 13th double doubles this season. He has had eight double doubles in 11 conference games. He also earned them against Saint Mary's (2), Loyola Marymount (2), at San Diego, at San Francisco, vs. Portland and at Pepperdine, but just missed a double double on Jan. 21 vs. Pepperdine with 14 points and nine rebounds. Bryant is now averaging a double double in conference games, 19.9 ppg and 10.9 rpg. He also has had double doubles against Cal State Monterey Bay on Nov. 9, Sacramento State on Nov. 25, San Jose State on Dec. 8, Montana on Dec. 17 and Denver on Dec. 28. Bryant had five double doubles in 2006-07 and four double doubles as a freshman during the 2005-06 season.

Angley Double Double
Senior point guard Brody Angley notched his fourth career double double and third of the season on Jan. 28 at San Francisco. Angley scored 11 points and had 10 assists against USF. He also had double doubles on Jan. 21 vs. Pepperdine, notching career highs in points (24) and assists (13), and Dec. 29 vs. Niagara, scoring 10 points and tying his career high with 11 rebounds. His only previous double double came on Nov. 26, 2005 against Pacific when he scored 12 points and grabbd a career high 11 rebounds.

Bryant's Consistency
Junior center John Bryant has had an impressive season so far for Santa Clara. He has scored in double figures in 25 out of 26 games, including a career high 36 at Loyola Marymount on Feb. 18. He has also scored over 20 points 12 times. He has grabbed at least four rebounds in every game. The San Pablo, Calif. native has recorded seven or more rebounds 19 times.

Conference Stats
The 2007-08 Broncos are among the leaders in a number of statistical categories in the West Coast Conference. SCU is first in field goal percentage (.489), first in 3-point field goal percentage (.384), first in scoring defense (61.3), first in rebounding defense (27.3) and second in rebounding margin (+4.9). Individually, John Bryant is second in scoring (18.7), first in rebounding (9.7), first in field goal percentage (.605) and first in blocked shots (2.27). He is also first in double doubles with 13. Brody Angley is second in assists (5.50), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.61), fourth in 3-point percentage at .416 and seventh in free throw percentage (.776). Jonathan Gunderson and Calvin Johnson are sixth and eighth in 3-point field goal percentage at .410 and .392 respectively.

Conference Only Stats
In West Coast Conference games, John Bryant and Brody Angley have been dominant. Bryant is second in scoring at 19.9 points per game, first in rebounding (10.9) and first blocked shots (2.64). Angley is fifth in scoring at 13.7 points per game and second in assists at 6.18 per game. Bryant and Angley are also fifth and eighth in free throw percentage at .785 and .742 respectively.

Angley Assists
Senior point guard Brody Angley had 119 assists last season, giving him 342 career assists coming into this season. With 143 assists in the first 26 games he has passed Eddie Joe Chavez (1974-78), who had 482 assists, for third all-time and has 485 career assists. His 143 assists this season are a career high for a season for Angley, surpassing his 142 in 2005-06. He now holds 10th place all-time in single season assists with 143.

Angley Threes
Brody Angley has made 121 three pointers on 340 attempts in his Santa Clara career. He is seventh all-time in makes and needs 15 to tie Nathan Fast (1996-00) for sixth. He trails Brandon Rohe (2002-07) by 16 for seventh in attempts. He has made a career high 47 this season.

Angley More Top 10s
Brody Angley also finds himself in the Top 10 all-time in steals at SCU with 161. He passed Steve Nash (1992-96) for fifth all-time with a steal on Jan. 7. Next on the list is John Woolery (1990-94) with 192. Along with steals, Angley now finds himself in the Top 10 all-time in games started as well. After starting against San Diego, the Redding, Calif. native, now has 106 starts. Angley has an opportunity to end his career second all-time if he starts 28 games this season. The all-time leader is Brian Jones (1996-01) with 116 starts. Kurt Rambis (1976-80) is second with 107. Angley has now also reached the Top 10 in minutes played as well with 3,521 all-time. That number places him third on Santa Clara's all-time list. Next on the list is Steve Kenilvort (1982-86), who racked up 3,633 minutes.

Bryant Moving Up
Center John Bryant blocked 49 shots last season, surpassing his 37 from the 2005-06 season. Bryant's 49 blocks were the third highest single season total in school history. He surpassed Jens Gordon (1987-88), who had 48. After 59 blocks in the first 26 games this year, Bryant now has 145 career blocks, moving him past Jens Gordon (1985-89) into second all-time in blocks. Nick Vanos (1981-85) is first with 159 blocks. His 59 blocks this season rank second all-time for blocks in a single season. The record is 67, set during the 1983-84 season by Nick Vanos.

The Century Mark
Senior Brody Angley has now appeared in 117 games in his career at Santa Clara after starting against San Diego on Feb. 23. He is tied for seventh all-time in appearances with Brian Jones (1996-2001) and Travis Niesen (2002-06). The school's all-time record of 127 is held by Kyle Bailey (2001-05.) Fellow senior Mitch Henke also reached 100 games played after starting against Niagara in the Cable Car Classic and has now appeared in 112 in his career.

On the Boards
Santa Clara has held the rebounding edge in 17 of its 26 games this season and have been outrebounded in six games, Stanford on Dec. 19, Niagara on Dec. 29, San Jose State on Jan. 7, Saint Mary's on Jan. 12, at San Diego on Jan. 26 and vs. Portland on Feb. 4. Santa Clara and Utah State each had 26 boards on Dec. 1 and SCU and Pacific each had 32 on Dec. 12. SCU and Pepperdine also tied in rebonding with 33 apiece on Feb. 16. Overall, the Broncos have outrebounded opponents 838-711 for a +4.9 margin.

Free Throw Line
SCU has improved significantly at the free throw line this season through 26 games. The Broncos are shooting 71 percent from the charity stripe this year after shooting 67 percent last season.

Threes
Senior Brody Angley, junior Calvin Johnson and sophomore Jonathan Gunderson are all shooting well from 3-point range this year. Angley is now shooting .416, 47-for-113, followed by Gunderson at .410, (34-for-83) and Johnson at .394 (29-of-74). The record for 3-point percentage for a season is .454, set by Steve Nash in 1994-95. As a team, SCU is shooting .384 from beyond the arc. The season record at Santa Clara is .390, set in 1994-95.