SANTA CLARA, Calif. – With the West Coast Conference race starting to heat up, Santa Clara women's basketball beat Portland 66-47 on Saturday afternoon in Leavey. The win was the fifth straight for the Broncos and their eighth conference win of the year.
The eight conference wins are the most for Santa Clara since 2007-08 when the Broncos finished the season 8-6 in the WCC and 20-11 overall.
The game was tight until a 9-0 Santa Clara run to end the first quarter and start the second put the Broncos up 24-14 with seven minutes to go in the opening half. The run gave them some breathing room for the first time and Portland was unable to recover.
"We really take pride as a program in preparing for every opponent exactly the same," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "We watched what worked and what didn't work the first time we played Portland and were pretty diligent after a slow start."
Santa Clara (17-5, 8-3 WCC) dominated on the glass, especially on the offensive end. The Broncos held a 44-25 advantage in rebounds and collected 17 offensive boards.
Marie Bertholdt led the way with 17 points on 8 of 15 shooting and grabbed seven boards, five of which were on the offensive end.
"I told the team I wanted an offensive rebound on every missed bucket today and I think Marie really took that to heart," said Payne. "She's such a tenacious player and is always the hardest working player on the floor. I loved her effort in the first half and it was nice to be able to rest some people in the second half."
Brooke Gallaway set a career-high with eight assists and scored a season-high nine points.
"The great thing about Brooke's line was eight assists and one turnover," said Payne. "She had almost half our assists tonight and really took care of the ball. It was nice to see her play so well."
Portland (2-20, 0-11 WCC) shot just 30.6 percent from the floor and was just 5 of 21 from beyond the arc.
Ellie Woerner was the lone Pilot to scoring in double-figures and had 17 with five 3-pointers. She added three rebounds and three assists.
"We were working to play our regular aggressive defense," said Payne. "Woerner is a great player and is going to be for years to come. If she goes for 17 points but everyone else is in single digits, we'll take that."
Savanna Hanson continued her improved shooting and hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the third quarter to spark an 8-0 Bronco run.
After another 8-0 run to start the fourth made the score 64-38, Santa Clara was able to give some regulars a little bit of rest.
"We don't have a lot of healthy bodies so everybody has to be ready to go no matter what the situation or the score," said Payne. Those guys came in and did a great job. This is a close-knit group so it's fun to seem them cheering for the players that don't get as many minutes."
Santa Clara returns to action Thursday at 7 p.m. at San Francisco.
