Dec. 20, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After a solid first-half Tuesday night, things unraveled quickly for the Santa Clara women's basketball team as the squad fell 98-72 to the Montana Lady Griz at the Leavey Center. Foul shooting made the difference Tuesday night as the Lady Griz sank 38 of their 40 attempts to run away with the game in the second half.
The Broncos will now take the next seven days off for the holidays before returning to the Leavey Center to kick off a Cable Car Classic tripleheader, as they host the Toledo Rockets at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 28.
Anna Martin turned in a career night Wednesday, draining 7-of-12 three-point attempts to finish the night with 21 points. Chandice Cronk added 15 while Jen Gottschalk returned to the lineup to add 11.
But Montana's Mandy Morales, the Big Sky Conference's leading scorer, totaled 35 points on the night, including an 18-for-18 showing from the free-throw line. Britney Lohman (17), Johanna Clossen (15), and Tamara Guardipee (12) rounded out the Montana players scoring in double figures.
It looked like it would be SCU's night at the start of the contest, as Martin drained a trio of threes to put the Broncos up 9-0, and added another three just under two minutes later to account for SCU's first 12 points.
The Bronco lead got to 10 at 19-9 with 11:46 left to play in the first half before the Lady Griz began to make their push. After an Ashley Gonnerman jumper gave SCU a 25-19 lead with 9:12 left in the half, the Broncos did not score for the next 5:07 as the Lady Griz reeled off 10 points, all by Lohman and Closson. But SCU fought back and went into the break trailing by only one at 36-35.
Montana began to stretch their lead over the first eight minutes of the second half, but the Broncos continued to stay with them. But foul trouble caught up with Santa Clara, as the team was whistled for 15 infractions alone in the second half, and 26 total for the game, as opposed to only eight for Montana over the entire contest. The early bonus paid off for the Lady Griz, as Montana sank 24-of-26 from the line to pull away in the final 11:51. Morales, after a rather silent first half, exploded for 27 points in the second, including a 14-of-14 showing from the line.