SAN FRANCISCO – Playing the first road game of the conference season, Santa Clara women's basketball fell at San Francisco 77-68 in overtime Saturday afternoon. The loss snapped the Broncos three-game winning streak.
In a back and forth game, Santa Clara (6-7, 1-1 WCC) led by as much as 26-10 early in the second quarter but San Francisco (8-5, 2-0 WCC) battled back and took a lead just after halftime. The Dons would build a late lead only to see the Broncos storm back before cold shooting cost Santa Clara in the extra time.
Santa Clara scored the first bucket of overtime but would miss its final seven attempts from the field. San Francisco responded to the basket by Morgan McGwire with seven straight points and outscored the Broncos 13-4 in the extra period to seal the Don's first victory in the series in two years. Anna Seilund proved too much over the final five minutes, scoring seven points.
Michaela Rakova led San Francisco with 21 points and 13 rebounds for the double-double. Seilund scored 16 to go with four assists and four steals while Rachel Howard also scored 16.
After a pair of free throws by Alicia Roufosse with 2:19 left in the fourth quarter gave the Dons a 62-53 lead, Santa Clara closed the final period on an 11-2 run to send the game into overtime. Emily Wolph hit a pair of 3-pointers and Lori Parkinson scored five over the final 2:03.
Parkinson and Wolph combined for 49 points, including eight 3-pointers. Parkinson scored a game-high 25 on 10 of 21 shooting and added nine rebounds in a game-high 42 minutes. Wolph scored 24 and was 6 of 13 from deep.
San Francisco did most of its damage in the second half with a pair of runs. The Dons took their first lead of the day with seven straight to open the second half. In the fourth they rattled off eight straight over three minutes to build a 56-48 lead with 4:38 to go.
The Broncos stormed out the gate and started the game on a 16-4 run over the first six and a half minutes of action. Parkinson scored six and Wolph and Naomi Jimenez each knocked down triples.
The Dons got their offense going for the first time with a 9-0 run over three minutes in the second quarter to get within 26-19 with five minutes left in the opening half. Howard capped the run with a 3-pointer. Santa Clara missed seven straight shots and didn't score for over four minutes before Kyla Martin's triple finally got the Broncos back on the board.
Santa Clara is back in action Thursday at Portland at 7 p.m.
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