WATCH | EYEBRONCO's Highlights from the Victory!
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In the regular season home opener, Santa Clara women's basketball blew by San Francisco State by a final of 87-41. The win puts the Broncos at 1-1 while the Gators are still 0-0 as the game counted as an exhibition for them.
Santa Clara returns to the floor Thurs., Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at UC Santa Barbara.
"Anytime you can win like that is great for confidence, especially after having a tough loss like the other night," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "It was great to be able to play everyone and we were able to work out some kinks. It felt like we were hitting on all cylinders in some regards. I really liked our defensive intensity. We haven't shown that type of defensive effort yet this season so that was awesome. We feel great about it."
Santa Clara shot 53.8% (35-65) from the field and 25.0% (2-8) from three. The Broncos had 46 rebounds, 20 assists, 23 turnovers, one block, and 14 steals. Sidney Rielly led the offense with 25 points on 10-18 shooting with three steals and three rebounds. Nici Gilday scored 10 points with three steals while Morgan McGwire grabbed seven rebounds to go with four points.
San Francisco State shot 28.0% (14-50) from the field and 10.5% (2-19) from three. The Gators had 25 rebounds, six assists, 31 turnovers, one block, and 10 steals. Brittaney Allison led the offense with 12 points on 3-17 shooting. Savannah Camp scored 11 points with seven rebounds while Leti Galarza grabbed five boards.
The Broncos started the game on a 12-0 run over the first 5:33. Gilday and Beth Carlson each scored four points while Brooke Gallaway and Vanessa Leo each scored two. The run finally ended when Jen Garcia knocked down a jumped for the Gators. Santa Clara came right back with a pair form the charity stripe.
An 11-0 run by Santa Clara over 4:23 followed while the Gators went 0-5 from the floor with five turnovers. Camp made a layup to end the run but Rielly came right back with a layup.
Another run by Santa Clara over 7:11 grew the lead to over 30 points. The run was 16-0 and made the score 45-6. The Broncos used the fast break to spur their run and saw several easy layups. Santa Clara entered the half with a 47-8 lead.
Santa Clara shot 47.5% (19-40) from the field and 0.0% (0-3) from three in the first half. The Broncos had 28 rebounds, 11 assists, eight turnovers, one block, and nine steals. Rielly led the offense with nine points on 4-9 shooting from the field. Gilday scored eight points with two steals while Raquel Avila had four assists and two points. Maddison Allen led the team with five rebounds and scored six points.
San Francisco State shot 18.2% (4-22) from the field and 0.0% (0-7) from three in the first half. The Gators had 11 rebounds, 19 turnovers, one block, and three steals. Michelle Sutton, Allison, Garcia, and Camp each scored two points. Camp and Galarza grabbed three boards each.
The Gators finally got into double-digits at the 18:12 mark on a pair of free throws from Allison. The Broncos kept the offensive onslaught going and got the lead up to 43 a few seconds later on a steal and layup by Gilday.
Rielly nailed a three with 16 minutes remaining to put Santa Clara up by 50 points. Back-to-back offensive rebounds by Leo and a nice cross-court pass by Katie Hawkins led to the three-pointer. Hawkins followed with a nice slash through the lane for a layup.
A 9-0 Santa Clara run ended at 13:38 when Allison hit a pair of free throws to make the score 66-14. Santa Clara came right back with a fast break bucket from Rielly off a nice pass from Hawkins. Rielly came back with another fast break layup on the next possession.
For the first time in the game the Gators scored four consecutive points. Allison hit a pair of free throws and came back with a layup in transition at 9:35. The points made it a 72-20 Santa Clara lead.
Santa Clara went on another 9-0 run over 2:38 to get the lead to over 60 points. Rielly drilled a three and hit a pair of free throws to lead the way. The Gators made two free throws of their own to end the run.
San Francisco State would go on a 9-0 run but it wasn't enough as the last minutes of the game ran out to give Santa Clara the win.
