Jan. 27, 2007
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - For the third weekend in a row in West Coast Conference play, the Santa Clara women's basketball team came away with a split of the weekend action. Saturday afternoon the Broncos were stunted by a slow start which proved too much to overcome as they dropped a 67-52 decision to the Loyola Marymount Lions.
Santa Clara returns to action next Saturday night, hosting the Saint Mary's Gaels in a 7 p.m. contest.
Tracey Walker led the Broncos with 16 points and seven rebounds in the contest, while Jen Gottschalk added 13 points and six boards. Gottschalk also led the Bronco defense with four steals in the contest.
Poor shooting nullified a fast start for the Broncos, who came out faster than the Lions in cashing a few quick layups for a 4-0 lead. With the score 8-8 with 13:15 left in the half, SCU suffered the first of its three scoring droughts of the half, not getting another score until just over four minutes later when Gottschalk's layup cut the deficit to three at 13-10.
The Broncos shot only 29.6% from the floor in the first half on 8-of-27 shooting, and 12 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes resulted in 13 points for the Lions. LMU's Amanda DeCoud accounted for six of the Lions' 11 steals in the contest.
LMU took control of the contest at that point, as Ogoke's three-point play the next trip down got a 9-0 Lions run started, and from that point the Bronco deficit never got to within less than 10 the rest of the way. LMU led at halftime by a 35-20 score.
Amanda Patton led the Lions with 17 points and made four of her six three-point attempts. Valerie Ogoke scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Jennifer Hall also pulled down nine rebounds as the Lions outrebounded the Broncos 40-32 in the contest. DeCoud added 13 points and six assists to go with her six steals.
The Lions, behind a pair of threes from Patton in the opening minutes of the second half, used a 10-2 run to extend the lead to 23 at 45-22.