SAN FRANCISCO – Impressive shooting all day by San Francisco was too much to overcome as Santa Clara women's basketball lost on the road 87-64 Saturday afternoon.
The Dons (13-9, 9-7 WCC) seemingly couldn't miss for much of the day, finishing at 57.4-percent from the floor and went 14-for-24 from beyond the arc. It was the polar opposite for the Broncos (13-9, 9-7 WCC) who couldn't get their offense going until it was too late and shot 34.8-percent on the day while going 6-for-23 from downtown.
A 13-0 run for San Francisco midway through the first quarter set the tone for the day. Ioanna Krimili paced the offense with a pair of 3-pointers during the run. The Dons then closed the period on a 7-0 run with Kia Vaalavirta scoring five to take a 29-15 lead.
The Santa Clara deficit grew to 38-18 after Lucija Kostic's layup with 6:35 to go in the first half capped a 7-0 run for San Francisco.
Krimili led all scorers with 20 points and was 6-of-8 from downtown. Marta Galic scored 17 while going 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and Amalie Langer added 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. Vaalavirta was also in double figures with 11 on 4-of-4 from the field and Kostic added a game high 13 rebounds.
The Broncos finally cooled down the Dons, keeping them scoreless for the final 3:02 of the first half but couldn't take advantage and went 1-for-10 from the field during the stretch.
The second half started just like the first, with San Francisco scoring the first eight, including two 3-pointers from Krimili. Later in the period Galic had back-to-back triples as well and her jumper a minute later gave the Dons a 30-point lead for the first time. They would get the lead to as big as 77-40 in the fourth quarter.
Santa Clara finally got some offense going in the fourth quarter with a 19-4 run and closed the game 5-of-7 from the floor. Ashlee Maldonado, Bryce Nixon, and Lara Edmanson all connected from deep to cut the deficit down to 81-59.
Maldonado and Lana Hollingsworth led Santa Clara with 10 points each. Ashlyn Herlihy added nine and six rebounds with Edmanson and Ashley Hiraki each scoring seven. Danja Stafford led the team with seven rebounds.
NOTES
- Santa Clara is now 64-43 all-time against San Francisco.
- Santa Clara finishes the year 7-3 on the road in West Coast Conference, matching the 2015-16 team that went 7-2 for most WCC road wins in a season.
- Ashlyn Herlihy is now 13th all-time at Santa Clara with 1,132 career points.
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The Broncos open the final week of the regular season with a visit from BYU Thursday.
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