PALO ALTO, Calif. – Kicking off a tough two game set against Pac-12 teams, Santa Clara women's basketball fell at No. 7 Stanford by a final of 82-43. The loss puts the Broncos at 5-3 overall while the Cardinal are now 6-2.
Santa Clara returns to the floor Thurs., Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. at Oregon.
"I liked our effort today but I would have liked to have rebounded a little bit better," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "The scoreboard isn't what's relevant to us as a young team. We never backed down and continued to try and execute. When you look at the two programs and where they are respectively, I think that's success. I'm extremely proud of the things we did well tonight."
Santa Clara shot 30.8% (20-65) from the field and 22.2% (2-9) from three. The Broncos had 33 rebounds, nine assists, 17 turnovers, four blocks, and one steal. Nici Gilday led the offense with 17 points on 8-12 shooting from the field. Marie Bertholdt added six rebounds and scored two points while Brooke Gallaway had four boards and scored three points.
Stanford shot 40.3% (29-72) from the field and 21.1% (4-19) from three. The Cardinal had 57 rebounds, 13 assists, nine turnovers, six blocks, and nine steals. Amber Orrange led the offense with 20 points on 7-12 shooting with four rebounds and three assists. Kaylee Johnson grabbed 22 rebounds and scored nine while Bonnie Samuelson scored 11 points.
Gallaway hit a three from the left corner to give Santa Clara the first points of the game. Johnson came back with a pair of free throws to make it a 3-2 game at the 18-minute mark. The Broncos would maintain a 7-4 lead at the first media timeout of the game.
Orrange made two free throws and Samuelson made a layup off an in bounds pass to give the Cardinal their first lead of the night 8-7 with 15 and a half minutes remaining in the opening half. The Cardinal would go on a 6-0 run over 3:23 to get on top 10-7. Santa Clara was 2-9 from the floor and scoreless for four minutes with three turnovers until Gilday made a layup at the 12:35 mark.
Stanford went on a stretch where they were 5-6 from the floor and built the lead to 22-15 with 7:41 left on the clock. After a missed three, Samuelson hit a baseline jumper to put the Cardinal on a 6-0 run. The run ended when Sidney Rielly grabbed an offensive rebound and dished to Maddison Allen for an easy layup.
A three-point play by K. Samuelson with five and a half minutes remaining in the opening half put Stanford up by double-digits for the first time. The Cardinal 11-0 run over 3:31 brought the Santa Clara deficit to 16 points. Gilday ended the run and a 3:51 scoreless drought for the Broncos. Her bucket made it 35-19 with 1:51 left in the half. Stanford would end the first half with a 40-21 lead.
Santa Clara shot 30.3% (10-33) from the field and 20.0% (1-5) from three in the first half. The Broncos had 14 rebounds, four assists, nine turnovers, and two blocks. Gilday led the offense with 14 points on 7-10 shooting from the floor. Bertholdt added four rebounds.
Stanford shot 36.1% (13-36) from the field and 12.5% (1-8) from three in the first half. The Cardinal had 29 rebounds, six assists, five turnovers, two blocks, and five steals. B. Samuelson led the offense with 11 points on 3-5 shooting. Orrange scored 10 points to go with four rebounds and three assists while Johnson scored six points and had nine boards.
Stanford went on a 6-0 run over a minute to push the lead to out to 21 points before Beth Carlson hit a short jumper. The bucket made the score 47-28 with 16:07 remaining in the game.
A 7-0 run over 2:37 for Stanford made the score 54-28 before Vanessa Leo made a layup to end a three and a half minute scoring drought for the Broncos. Taylor Berry came back with a free throw line jumper.
Santa Clara hit four consecutive field goals over a two-minute stretch but Stanford matched them with three straight. A three-point play by Lili Thompson at 9:21 made the score 63-36.
When the final horn blew Stanford came away with a 39-point win.