Jan. 18, 2007
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - In a battle of two of the top teams in the West Coast Conference Thursday night, both the Santa Clara women's basketball team and the San Diego Toreros struggled from the floor, shooting only 32.7% and 37.1% respectively. But the Broncos, out-rebounded by a 49-37 margin, ended up on the short end of a 71-52 decision.
Santa Clara (10-9, 2-2 WCC) will finish off the weekend with a Saturday night contest at 7 p.m. against the San Francisco Dons.
Tracey Walker led the Broncos Thursday night with 16 points, while Chandice Cronk's 13 points and Ashley Graham's 10 rounded out the Broncos scoring in double figures. Jen Gottschalk grabbed nine rebounds to lead the team, while Ashley Gonnerman pulled down seven.
Santa Clara shot only 17-of-52 from the floor from the night, and was only 3-of-17 from behind the arc after entering the game as the WCC's best three-point shooting team. The Toreros also benefited from 15 second-chance points from 16 offensive rebounds to SCU's nine.
Amber Sprague led all players with 20 points and 13 rebounds on the night, while Sabine Loewe scored 19 points to go with eight boards for the Toreros.
San Diego started out by scoring the first six points of the contest, but after a timeout to halt the run, the Broncos answered with six unanswered points of their own to tie it up at 6-6 early.
The teams kept at it in a back-and-forth contest up until a Loewe three gave USD a 22-16 lead with eight minutes left in the first half. From that point, the Toreros never led by less than six the rest of the contest, as a pair of jumpers from Sprague in the final two minutes turned a six-point advantage into a 35-25 halftime lead.
The second half didn't get any better for the Broncos, as the Toreros quickly jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first five minutes. A 14-5 run to start the half gave USD a 49-30 lead with 13:17 to play, and the advantage ballooned to 22 at 56-34 at the 7:57 mark.