LAS VEGAS – The season came to an end for Santa Clara women's basketball Friday afternoon in a 76-60 loss to Pacific in the second round of the West Coast Conference Tournament.
"This is the toughest time of the year when a group has been together this long, and the season comes to an end," Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr said. "As I told the team in the locker room, I would go to battle with this group just about anywhere."
A big second half from the Tigers (18-11, 10-8 WCC) turned a close game into one without much drama towards the end as the Broncos (14-17, 6-12 WCC) shot just 25.0-percent from the field in the second half, going 2-for-17 from deep after going 4-for-11 in the first half.
"It looked like we started rushing a little bit and they started scoring," Carr said. "The momentum shifted. I thought some of our decision making and shot selection wasn't the greatest, which didn't help. Credit to Pacific. They guarded us and really got rolling on the offensive end and we couldn't counter."
Lianna Tillman and Brooklyn McDavid went on a 9-0 run to start Pacific's charge. Tillman capped the run with a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left in the third quarter that made it 52-46.
An 8-0 run in the fourth stretched the lead to a double-figures for the first time. Valerie Higgins led the way with four points, including a layup at 4:22 that made it 64-51.
Higgins finished with a game-high 18 and 14 rebounds for the double-double with McDavid adding 16 points and Ameela Li scoring 11.
A scoreless drought of over seven minutes for Pacific and 11 in a row for Santa Clara got the Broncos on top at the start of the second quarter. Emily Wolph connected from deep to end the first and Lauren Yearwood scored two buckets to begin the second with Lexie Pritchard's 3-pointer making it a 19-18 game at 6:24.
Yearwood led the Broncos with 14 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field and Ashlyn Herlihy scored 11 with eight rebounds. Tia Hay added 10 points and Lindsey VanAllen scored 10 as well.
The Tigers went on an 11-2 run over three minutes midway through the first quarter to pull out to a 16-7 lead at the 3:05 mark.
NOTES
- Santa Clara is now 29-23 all-time against Pacific.
- With one block in the game, Lauren Yearwood finished the season with a program record 79 on the on the year, also tied for No. 6 on the career list.
- The Broncos used the same starting lineup (Hay, Wolph, Jimenez, Herlihy, Yearwood) for the 13th consecutive game.
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