Feb. 15, 2007
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Despite Ashley Graham and Chandice Cronk closing in on personal milestones Thursday night, the shooting and rebounding woes continued for the Santa Clara women's basketball team as the Broncos fell, 77-52, to the San Diego Toreros at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Broncos (13-13, 5-6 WCC) will look to end the weekend on a winning note Sunday night with a 2 p.m. contest in San Francisco against the Dons. The game will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet.
Ashley Graham led all Broncos with 13 points, five rebounds, and six assists Thursday night. She also increased her career point total to 982, leaving her 18 points away from becoming the 16th member of SCU's "1,000-Point Club" with three regular-season and at least one WCC tournament game remaining. Graham, with two three-pointers on the night, also hit her 200th career three Thursday night, becoming only the second Bronco to reach that mark.
Cronk, meanwhile, scored 12 points to put herself at 949 career points with at least four games left, and her two three-pointers Thursday night gave her 89 on the season, tying her with Julie Lienert (1990-91) for the SCU single-season record.
But the play of Graham and Cronk, along with Jen Gottschalk's 12 points and five rebounds, could not help SCU overcome San Diego. Morgan Henderson scored 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting off the bench for the Toreros to lead five USD players scoring in double figures. Amber Sprague scored 12 and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, while Amanda Rego grabbed eight to help lead USD to a 52-25 advantage in rebounds in the contest.
A 12-0 USD run over a five-minute span in the first half turned an 11-10 contest into a 23-10 advantage, giving the Toreros control of the game. The lead got to as large as 16 at 36-20 with 3:50 to play in the first half, before a three from Graham and four points from Sara Majors cut things to nine at 36-27. But a jumper from Henderson with 47 seconds left gave USD the 38-27 lead at halftime.
San Diego kept up the pressure at the start of the second half, scoring the first six points to force an SCU timeout and take a 44-27 lead. Despite the Broncos cutting the deficit to 10 on multiple occasions, the last on a Majors layup with 6:44 to play to make it 57-47, the Toreros regained control of things by reeling off 10 straight points to put things away at 67-47 with 3:51 to play.