LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Santa Clara women's basketball lost at LMU by a final of 82-57 on Thursday night. The loss puts the Broncos at 6-11 overall and 1-7 in WCC action while the Lions are now 3-16 overall and 1-7 in conference play.
Santa Clara returns to the floor Sat., Jan. 24 at 12 p.m. at Pepperdine.
Santa Clara shot 35.4% (23-65) from the field and 20.0% (3-15) from three. The Broncos had 38 rebounds, 11 assists, 18 turnovers, two blocks, and eight steals. Nici Gilday led the offense with 12 points. Morgan McGwire added 10 points on 5-7 shooting while Emily Wolph scored nine with five assists.
LMU shot 54.5% (30-55) from the field and 44.4% (8-18) from three. The Lions had 35 rebounds, 23 assists, 15 turnovers, seven blocks, and nine steals. Leslie Lopez-Wood led the offense with 24 points on 9-10 shooting from the field. Emily Ben-Jumbo added 15 on 7-8 shooting from the free throw line and Sophie Taylor scored 14 with nine boards.
Back-to-back baskets by Taylor Anderson and Lopez-Wood gave LMU a four-point lead with 16 minutes to go in the first half. Maddison Allen answered with a layup to make it 11-9.
A three by Makenzie Cast with 8:51 remaining in the first half gave LMU a game-high six point lead. Wolph hit two free throws but two straight buckets for the Lions made the score 28-20.
The Lions got on top by double-digits at 4:21 but Wolph trimmed the lead to seven with a three seconds later. LMU went on a 6-0 run over the next minute and a half. Taylor Berry's layup with 2:44 on the clock ended the run and made the score 38-27.
The Broncos would trail by as many as 16 in the final minute of the half but Wolph made a layup with four seconds left to send the teams to the locker room with the score 45-31.
Santa Clara shot 40.0% (12-30) from the field and 37.5% (3-8) from three in the first half. The Broncos had 15 rebounds, six assists, 11 turnovers, one block, and five steals. Gilday led the offense with 12 points on 4-7 shooting. Wolph added seven points while Marie Bertholdt had eight rebounds.
LMU shot 64.0% (16-25) from the field and 66.7% (4-6) from three in the first half. The Lions had 16 rebounds, 13 assists, nine turnovers, two blocks, and six steals. Lopex-Wood led the offense with 13 points on 5-5 shooting from the field with three assists and two steals. Ben-Jumbo scored 11 on 5-6 shooting from the free throw line while Taylor scored six points with five rebounds and three steals.
The Lions scored the first five points of the second half before a jumper by Raquel Avila at 17:20 made the score 50-33. Berry came back with a layup to get the Broncos within 15.
A 10-0 run over five minutes put LMU on top by 25 points. The run ended at 11:48 when Berry hit one of two from the free throw line. The Broncos missed nine consecutive field goals before McGwire's layup with 11:06 left in the game made it 62-40.
LMU would get out on top by as many as 27 and would win by 25.
