Jan. 16, 2004
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's basketball team will be looking to remain undefeated in West Coast Conference action Saturday when it hosts Loyola Marymount in a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Leavey Center.
Bronco basketball fans will get a chance to relive the past as well when the annual Alumni Game tips-off at 3 p.m. This year's contest features such notables as Bud Ogden, Eddie Joe Chavez, Bruch Asch, Jerry Belotti, Lloyd Pierce and many more. For a complete list of registered players, click here.
Admission to the alumni game is free. Tickets to the 7 p.m. contest against Loyola Marymount can be purchased in advance by calling 408/554-4660. A live radio broadcast of the Bronco game will be available in the Bay Area on KSFB-AM (1220) as well as via the Internet by
Santa Clara enters Saturday's game with a 10-7 record and a perfect 2-0 mark in WCC play after knocking off visiting Pepperdine 75-68 Thursday night. The Broncos shot 48.1 percent from the field and registered 11 steals against the Waves and held off a late comeback to secure the victory.
Junior Doron Perkins, the team's leading scorer with an average of 12.3 points per game, scored all of his game-high 17 points in the second half, including nine of Santa Clara's final 10 points. Pepperdine turned the ball over three times in the final minute with sophomore forward Travis Niesen drawing two charges to help seal the win.
The Broncos are 2-0 in league play for the first time since 1999 and will be looking to go 3-0 in the WCC for the first time since 1998 when they started out 5-0 against their conference opponents. A stingy defense has been the key to SCU's success this season as the Broncos are among the league leaders in scoring defense, allowing just 64.2 points per game. SCU held Pepperdine, second in the WCC in scoring, to nine points below its average and forced the Waves into 16 turnovers.
In addition to his team-leading offense, Perkins is the WCC's steals leader with an average of 2.24 per game. Backcourt mate Kyle Bailey is second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.4 points per game and Niesen has steadily increased his scoring average to 9.2 points per game, which is third on the team.
A native of Mission Viejo, Calif., Niesen and senior center Jim Howell are the only two Broncos to start all 17 games this season. Howell is among the league leaders in blocked shots with an average of 1.18 per game and his 20 total blocks is more than his first three seasons on the Mission campus combined.
Loyola Marymount enters Saturday's game with a 9-6 overall record and a 1-2 mark in league play after securing a 76-68 win at San Diego Thursday night. Senior forward Sherman Gay led the team for the third-straight game with 25 points while Keith Kincade added a team-high seven rebounds.
The Lions have won three of their last five games but dropped the first two WCC games of the season at home against Gonzaga (74-60) and Portland (77-68).
Gay leads the team in scoring with an average of 17.2 points per game. The Carson, Calif. native has led the team in nine of its 15 games this season and is second on the team in rebounding with a 5.7 per game average. Kincade is second on the squad in scoring with an average of 12.3 points per game. Charles Brown is the only other Lion in double figures with an 11.8 scoring average and is the team's assist leader, handing out 3.9 per game.
Santa Clara owns a 72-46 series lead over Loyola Marymount since the first meeting between the two schools in the 1936-37 season. SCU won six of the first eight meetings and owned an 8-5 series edge when the two teams became conference rivals in 1955-56. Since that time, Santa Clara has a 64-41 series lead.
More recently, Santa Clara has won nine of the last 11 meetings and 14 of the last 18. The Broncos had knocked-off the Lions eight-straight times before suffering back-to-back losses last season, both at home and in Los Angeles. SCU is 15-9 at home against LMU in the last 20 years but 11-2 in the last 10 seasons. Dick Dave is 21-4 against Loyola Marymount overall as a head coach.
