NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Meagan Fulps scored 12 of her 19 points in the first half, helping Santa Clara jump out to a big lead in a 90-72 road victory over Cal State Northridge Thursday night.
Santa Clara (6-1) entered the week with the WCC's best record and the win over CSUN is the team's fifth straight. Fulps also cleared six rebounds and had four assists while junior classmate Ruta Zurauskyte added 17 points.
Ricki Radanovich made a series of timely 3s to help the Broncos hold off the Matadors in the second half. She would also finish with a career-high six assists for an SCU group that shared the ball extremely well, totaling 22 as a team.
CSU Northridge (4-3) was coming off a Thanksgiving week tournament championship win over BIG EAST Conference member West Virginia. The Matadors received 13 points apiece from guards Janae Sharpe and Ashlee Guay.
A pair of triples by Sharpe helped CSUN cut Santa Clara's 17-point first half lead down to six three minutes into the second half. However, the Broncos offense was too efficient, committing just 13 turnovers en route to the team's second 90-plus point scoring night of the year.
Santa Clara established a 15-5 lead, getting a number of easy baskets around the rim, including four early points from junior forward Lindsay Leo. Midway through the first half, a long triple from freshman Tyler Woods and an old fashioned three-point play by Zurauskyte made it 21-12 Broncos.
Santa Clara was up 42-28 at the half. Eight different Broncos scored and the lead had grown to 17, 42-25, on back-to-back 3s from Radanovich and Fulps one minute before the break.
The game tightened up considerably in the opening moments of the second half. Following two of Sharpe's 3s, a driving lay up by Kaitlyn Peterson made it 48-42 at the 16:51 mark.
Despite shooting 1 for 7 in the first half, SCU senior guard Alyssa Shoji responded to CSUN's run by knocking down a pair of key jumpers, extending the Bronco lead back out to 10, a cushion SCU would enjoy for the better part of the night.
Leading by that 10-point margin with 6:38 left, Radanovich drained the second of her three 3s to put Santa Clara up 69-56. She made her third moments later to put the game out of reach, 76-61 at the four-minute mark.
GAME NOTES: The Broncos have made at least 8 three-pointers in each of their last four games … Santa Clara improves to 7-1 all-time against CSU Northridge … Santa Clara went 14 for 17 from the free throw line (CSUN was 14 for 18) … Alyssa Shoji entered the game ranked No. 2 in NCAA in 3s per game (4.3) … Lindsay Leo had 13 points and three blocks – her three blocks moves her into 10th all-time in SCU history … an audio broadcast of all Bronco road games can be heard live on SantaClaraBroncos.com.