STOCKTON, Calif. – Kicking off the final week of regular season play, Santa Clara women's basketball fell to Pacific by a final of 87-75. The loss puts the Broncos at 10-16 overall and 5-12 in WCC action while the Tigers are now 21-7 overall and 13-4 in conference play.
Santa Clara returns to the floor Sat., Feb. 28 at 1 p.m. at Saint Mary's in the regular season finale.
Santa Clara shot 45.1% (23-51) from the field and 28.6% (2-7) from three. The Broncos had 37 rebounds, eight assists, 15 turnovers, seven blocks, and five steals. Nici Gilday led the offense with 20 points on 11-11 shooting from the free throw line. Raquel Avila scored 13 while Marie Bertholdt scored 10 with sex rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.
Pacific shot 41.2% (28-68) from the field and 39.1% (9-23) from three. The Tigers had 39 rebounds, 20 assists, 10 turnovers, three blocks, and six steals. Kendall Kenyon led the offense with 24 points and 17 rebounds. Maddison Parrish scored 16 with 10 assists while Hailie Eackles scored 13.
With the Tigers up seven and 12:51 on the clock, they went on a 16-0 run over three and a half minutes to build a 23-point lead. Santa Clara was 0-5 from the field until Morgan McGwire made a layup at 7:28 to make the score 32-11.
Her bucket would spark a 7-0 Bronco run over two minutes. The run was capped by a three from Emily Wolph with 5:26 on the clock. Claire Conricode came back with a three of her own to end the run and put Pacific up 35-16.
An 8-0 Santa Clara run over 1:55 was sparked by a four-point play from Gilday at the three-minute mark. Avila added four points to round out the run and get the Broncos within 11. Eackles would hit a free throw and Kenyon added a jumper to send the teams to the half with Pacific on top 40-26.
Santa Clara shot 45.8% (11-24) from the field and 50.0% (2-4) from three in the first half. The Broncos had 14 rebounds, four assists, 10 turnovers, three blocks, and two steals. Gilday led the offense with eight points and two rebounds. Raquel Avila scores seven while Bertholdt had four rebounds and two assists.
Pacific shot 46.9% (15-32) from the field and 50.0% (6-12) from three in the first half. The Tigers had 19 rebounds, 12 assists, six turnovers, two blocks, and three steals. Kenyon led the offense with nine points and 10 rebounds. Eackles scored nine while Kristina Johnson added seven.
The Tigers scored the first 11 points of the second half in just over 90 seconds to get on top by 25. Gilday finally ended the run with a layup that would start an 8-0 Bronco run. Kenyon made a layup at 16:27 that made the score 53-34.
Now down 19, Santa Clara scored nine straight to get within 10 points at the 11:44 mark. Kenyon converted a three-point play to end the run and make the game 59-46.
Three straight free throws from Santa Clara cut the deficit to single digits for the first time in the second half. Parrish answered right back with a three to make it a 12-point game again with 6:51 left in the game.
The Broncos would get within seven with 58 seconds left in the game but could get no closer and Pacific held on to win by 12 after hitting free throws down the stretch.
