Men's Basketball Wins at San Diego
Behind Troy Payne's career-high six steals and season-high 10 points, Santa Clara rallied to win 61-52 at San Diego. Santa Clara is 10-8 and 1-1 in the WCC and San Diego is 3-13 and 0-3 in the WCC. Santa Clara travels to Moraga to play Saint Mary's on Sat., Jan. 15 at 7 pm in a Comcast-televised game.
"We had a good week of practice. Niyi and Troy had really good weeks of practice and it showed when they came off the bench tonight," said Bronco head coach Kerry Keating. "We played well tonight without fouling and we rebounded the ball. Ben and Niyi played solid with Ben grabbing eight rebounds. Ray coming up with the ball, fighting it away from two of their players, was one of the keys of the game. And Kevin's only three of the game was also a highlight."
Santa Clara shot 43.1 percent (25 of 58) from the field, including 30.8 percent from beyond the arc (4 of 13). The Broncos collected 37 rebounds, 13 assists, 9 steals and 4 blocks. They shot 70.0 percent from the free throw line (7 of 10) with 11 turnovers.
San Diego shot 50.0 percent (21 of 42) from the field, including 30.0 percent from beyond the arc (3 of 10). USD collected 25 rebounds, 13 assists, three steals and eight blocks. They shot 53.8 percent from the free throw line (7 of 13) with 15 turnovers.
Individually, the Broncos were led by Kevin Foster's 15 points and five assists. Payne also scored a season-high 10 points. Evan Roquemore scored eights oints with four assists and Ben Dowdell added eight points and eight rebounds. Marc Trasolini tied a season-high with three blocks, adding six points and three rebounds.
Matt Dorr scored 12 points for USD to lead the team. Chris Manresa grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
San Diego started the game on a 13-2 run in the first four and a half minutes. John McArthur put the Broncos on the board with a basket at 17:39 and then Troy Payne scored at 15:34. Chris Gabriel made the lead 15-4 at 14:06.
"Tonight was one of those deals where we are fighting and trying to grow up early. We have to bring our energy to games no matter who we are playing or where we are playing," added Keating.
Making five straight stops on defense, Santa Clara went on an 11-0 run of its own. Dowdell scored on a floater, Foster dripped and dipped on in and Cowels hit a three. Foster scored in the paint to tie it up 15-15. After a USD bucket, two Cowels free throws tied it up again at 17-17.
Back-to-back dunks by Rancifer made it 21-17 USD at 8:00. A Roquemore steal led to a Foster bucket under the hoop at 7:01 and then USD scored two baskets to go up 25-19 at 6:01. Foster scored at 5:02 and then a Trasolini block led to a Trasolini bucket after a nifty Roquemore pass. The teams traded baskets with USD up 27-25 at the last media at 3:18.
Dowdell's dunk at 2:26 tied it up 27-27. Trading baskets, Cowels scored over the 6-foot-10 Gabriel to tie it up 29-29 at :58.7, the same score as half-time.
In the first half, Santa Clara shot 50.0 percent (13 of 26) from the field, including 16.7 percent from beyond the arc (1 of 6). The Broncos collected 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. They shot 66.7 percent from the free throw line (2 of 3) with eight turnovers.
San Diego shot 54.2 percent (13 of 24) from the field, including 25.0 percent from beyond the arc (1 of 4). USD collected 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks. They shot 60.0 percent from the free throw line (21 of 35) with 18 turnovers.
The Broncos were led by Foster's 10 points (5 of 9, 0-2 from three). Dowdell and Trasolini both grabbed three rebounds. Dorr scored nine and Manresa and Rancifer both scored six. Manresa grabbed a team-leading four rebounds.
The teams traded turnovers to start the second half before two sweet passes by Foster to Trasolini resulted in back-to-back baskets. Harrison flew over two USD players to dunk the ball at 14:42. Dowdell tipped the ball in at 14:18 to give the Broncos a 37-31 lead.
Norris scored at 14:02 and then Payne scored at 13:30 after the ball was tipped around the rim, 39-33 Broncos. The USD bucket at 14:02 was its first since 2:00 in the first half. Dowdell slammed a Dorr shot down into Foster's hands and then Dowdell threw a no-look pass into Roquemore for a score at 12:52.
USD went on a 7-0 run from 10:35 – 8:49. Roquemore halted the run when he crushed a three, 46-42 at 8:22. Harrison free throw was followed by a Norris floater to cut the lead to one at 6:40.
Roquemore hit his second three of the half at 6:24. Harrison moved around under the basket for a reverse lay-in and USD threw the ball out of bounds. Payne hit the free throw line at 5:03 to make both, 54-46 Broncos.
Dorr hit a three to make it 54-50 Broncos at 2:52. Foster's first three of the game came at 2:19 and then after USD turned it over Payne laid it to put SCU up by nine at 1:49. Rancifer dunked on the Broncos for the third time 1:10. With :26.4 on the clock Foster was finally fouled and he sank both to put SCU up by nine again.