Dec. 17, 2006
LAWRENCE, Kan. - The Santa Clara women's basketball team finished off their trip to Kansas by dropping a 78-68 decision Sunday afternoon to the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. While the Broncos fought hard on the boards and battled up and down the court, the Jayhawks offense was too much on this particular day, shooting 55.8% from the floor.
The Broncos (6-6) now return home to prepare for the Montana Lady Griz, whom they will face at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, Dec. 20.
Ashley Graham led the Broncos with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc, on Sunday afternoon, while Chandice Cronk had 16 points and Ashley Gonnerman added 13. The Broncos shot 52.0% from the field, and Gonnerman also led the team with five rebounds. Kelly Kohn led four Jayhawks scoring in double figures with 19 points and five rebounds while Marija Zinic scored 13 points underneath.
Santa Clara got off to an encouraging start Sunday, as Gonnerman and Kasey Monteith combined for 10 points as the Broncos took an early 15-12 lead. But the first of two big runs for Kansas provided an ominous sign of things to come for SCU.
Threes from Shaquina Mosley and Danielle McCray helped the Jayhawks go on a 9-2 run that resulted in a 24-17 lead. A pair of free throws and a three from Tracey Walker, though, got the Broncos to within two at 26-24. Minutes later, after KU got the lead back to six, a three from Graham cut the deficit to three at 30-27, but Kansas then tightened up on the defensive end, holding SCU scoreless for the final 3:42 of the half and scoring 10 unanswered points to go into the break with a 40-27 advantage.
The Broncos scored the first four points of the second half to cut the deficit to nine, and with 14:21 remaining, got a Cronk runner to cut things to eight at 47-39. But that was as close as things would get the rest of the way, as Kansas went on a 9-0 run over the next two-plus minutes to build a 17-point cushion at 56-39.
While Santa Clara never completely went away, continuing to play hard and attack the Jayhawk defense, 17 turnovers in the second half, and 23 for the game were the team's ultimate undoing. KU took advantage of the extra possessions, and continued to shoot so well as to halt any potential Bronco rally before it could get started.
