Nov. 23, 2003
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Quinn Thomas scored 18 points but her efforts went for naught as the Santa Clara University women's basketball team dropped its 2003-2004 season opener to Wisconsin-Green Bay Sunday afternoon by a score of 67-53 in the Leavey Center.
The Broncos came out early and hung with the Phoenix, who improved to 2-0 on the season, as two Jennie Rondel free throws knotted the score at 13 apiece after the first six minutes of play. From there UWGB would go on a 24-9 run that pushed their lead to a 37-22 with less than three minutes to play in the first half.
Santa Clara answered with an 8-0 run of their own sparked by back-to-back jumpers from transfer Michelle Cozad, closing the gap to 37-30, but a three pointer from Mary Kulenkamp with only 53 seconds remaining at the half put the Phoenix up by 10 at the break.
Both teams came out cold in the second half as no points were scored until Kulenkamp hit a free throw at the 17:14 mark to put the Phoenix up by 11. SCU did not score until Thomas hit a three-pointer at 15:51 to pull the Broncos within 13, but from there Wisconsin-Green Bay held the Broncos outside of striking distance, not letting them back within 13 point the rest of the way.
Two consecutive scoreless streaks of one minute doomed Santa Clara as they fell to 0-1 on the year with the 14-point margin of defeat.
Thomas, a junior from Kent, Wash., scored all of her points from behind the three-point arc, going 6-for-12 from long distance, while the team only managed to go 2-for-13 from behind the three-point line. Ashley Gonnerman added eight points on 3-for-7 shooting while Jennie Rondel and Cozad each chipped in with seven points.
Tiffany Mor led three UWGB players in double-digit points with her game-high 19, followed by Kulenkamp's 14 and Abby Scharlow's 12. Kulenkamp grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with Mor's 10.
As a team the Phoenix shot just under 40% from the field while the Broncos managed only a 33.9 percent mark from the floor. Wisconsin-Green Bay had a huge advantage at the charity stripe, going 20-25 at the line while SCU made five of their nine attempts.
Santa Clara returns to action on Tuesday as it travels to Stockton, Calif. for a 7 p.m. game against Pacific. Following that match-up the Broncos return to the Leavey Center for a 7 p.m. game against 10th-ranked Georgia on Friday night, November 28.