SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Finishing up the first half of the conference season, Santa Clara women's basketball used a big fourth quarter to beat San Francisco 68-57 on Saturday afternoon in Leavey.
Savanna Hanson made the biggest buckets of the game for Santa Clara when she got hot from the floor and scored seven straight in the fourth quarter. Her buckets put Santa Clara up double-digits for the first time at 60-50 with 4:05 on the clock and seemed to take the air out of the Dons.
"That two-minute stretch [Hanson] was totally clutch for us and really opened up the game," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "When we needed a bucket, those back-to-back-to-back shots were the biggest part of the game."
Santa Clara (15-5, 6-3 WCC) forced 30 turnovers and picked up 20 steals to help offset early shooting trouble. The Broncos scored 26 points off of those turnovers and scored 26 second chance points.
San Francisco (12-8, 3-6 WCC) couldn't match the Bronco defense or ability on the offensive glass. The Dons were able to score just nine points off turnovers and just two second chance points. Anna Seilund led the team with 15 points on 4 of 7 shooting from 3-point land.
The Broncos held Taylor Proctor, who is third in the WCC with 19.5 ppg, to just nine points. She had scored double-digits in 25 straight games.
"We were trying to be aggressive and we were able to that against [Proctor]," said Payne. "The foul trouble early definitely helped. We'll expect her best effort next time for sure."
Devin Hudson led all scorers with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting and led Santa Clara with seven rebounds. Hanson hit a pair of triples en route to scoring 15. Taylor Berry scored 11 and had four steals.
In spite of the dominant final period, Santa Clara started the game ice cold from the floor, shooting just 3 of 14 in the first quarter and 7 of 33 in the first half. The Broncos also struggled from the charity stripe, going just 8 of 15 in the opening half.
Santa Clara stayed in the game thanks to defensive pressure that forced 16 first half turnovers.
"After that tough first half we talked about just putting your layups in," said Payne. "We wanted to continue to be aggressive and not get mental. There were no real technical adjustments, just mental ones."
The Dons didn't fare much better in the opening half, going 9 of 26 from the floor and 0 of 8 from beyond the arc.
Santa Clara returns to action Thursday at 6 p.m. vs. Gonzaga.
