Santa Clara-Portland Game Notes

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara is in the midst of three road West Coast Conference games, including a pair in the Northwest. After suffering a 84-67 loss at Gonzaga Thursday, the Broncos look to rebound Saturday at Portland.

The teams met earlier this month, with Santa Clara holding off the Pilots, 84-77, at home. KJ Feagin scored a game-high 25 points and Jared Brownridge tallied 23, including six free throws in the final minute. Brownridge (13 of 13) and Feagin (13 of 14) combined to miss just one free throw helping the Broncos shot a season-best 86.5 percent (32 of 37) from the line.

SANTA CLARA (7-15, 3-7) at Portland (9-14, 3-7)

Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016 • Chiles Center (4,852) • 7 p.m. PST

Live Stream: TheW.tv - Travis Demers (play-by-play) and Bill Krueger (analyst)

Radio: KSCU (103.3 FM) - Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) and John Stege (analyst)

Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com

Radio/Live Stream: Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) and John Stege (color) will call the action for the Broncos on KSCU 103.3 FM. The game can be heard over the air or online through tunein. All Broncos home games and West Coast Conference contests (not on an ESPN platform) will also be streamed through TheW.tv (local blackout restrictions apply for games broadcast over the air).

Quick Hits...
• After dropping their first seven games of the season, the Broncos, led by ninth-year head coach Kerry Keating, have gone 7-8 since Nov. 29.
• Jared Brownridge, in his third year as a starter, ranks No. 46 nationally in the scoring (19.2 ppg). He is second on the team in assists (2.4 pg) and third in rebounding (career-high 3.5 pg). He is connecting on 82.8 percent of his free throws (fifth in the WCC) and his 106 makes from the charity stripe are tied for No. 39 in the NCAA this year. He also ranks tied for 25th nationally in 3-point field goals (62). Brownridge is one of three players in the nation to rank in the top 40 of both those categories. He is joined by Josh Adams (Wyoming) and Frank Eaves (Appalachian St). Junior forward Nate Kratch leads the team in both rebounding (8.8 pg/third in the WCC) and FG percentage (56.5/fourth in the WCC), and is third in scoring (10.4 ppg).
• KJ Feagin, now the team's second-leading scorer (10.6 ppg), has emerged in the last six weeks as another scoring option and been a consistent distributor. The freshman guard has scored in double figures in nine of the last 14 games and averaged 12.2 points and 5.1 assists in that span. He has posted eight or more assists three times in WCC action and tallied the second-highest point total of his career (25), including a career-best 13 FTs, vs. Portland (Jan. 2).
• Despite playing just two-plus seasons, Brownridge already ranks third in school history with 250 career 3-pointers and 14th in scoring (1,499 points). In addition, his career scoring average (17.2 ppg) ranks No. 6 on the Broncos all-time chart and his career 3-point field-goal percentage (42.2) is tops in school history. After missing most of preseason practice Brownridge had an uneven start to the season, but has heated up. He has scored in double figures each of the last 13 games, averaging 20.7 points on 44.7 percent shooting from the floor, including 46.5 from behind the 3-point line.
• Eight of Santa Clara's 15 losses have been by eight points or less, including six that were within three. The Broncos have lost three times in overtime.
• The Broncos have three players on the shelf. Sophomore guard Evan Wardlow (broken right wrist) missed the last 13 games and will be out approximately two months. Sophomore forward Jarvis Pugh (knee) missed the previous seven games before playing against Saint Mary's (Dec. 23), but sat out the last eight. Junior guard Brendyn Taylor (concussion) returned vs. Nevada (Dec. 19) after missing seven games. Freshman forward Tony Lewis (leg) has not played this season.

Homeward Bound...
Sophomore forward Matt Hubbard and senior guard Werner Nistler are playing close to home on the current road. Hubbard is from Colville, Washington, which is located 70 miles north of Spokane, home of Gonzaga. Nistler hails from Portland, where he played at Jesuit High School. 

Tidbits...
• With five assists vs. Gonzaga Thursday, KJ Feagin (91) moved from fifth to fourth on the school's all-time freshman list, passing Melvin Chinn who had 90 during the 1988-89 season.
• The Broncos posted a season-high 10 steals vs. Gonzaga. The previous high was nine vs. Boston College (Nov. 29),
• Since an 0-for-3 performance from the free-throw line at Pacific (Dec. 21), Feagin has connected on 28 of 30 free throws (93.3 percent). He has improved from 59.1 to 78.8 percent from the line in the last eight games. Feagin ranks tied for fourth in the WCC during league action (84.8 percent).
• During the first 15 games of the season, Santa Clara only had as many as three players in double figures six times. In the last seven games, three or more players have reached double figures four times. The Broncos are 6-4 when at least three players reach double figures, including 3-0 with four players scoring 10 or more.
• Jared Brownridge has scored 20 or more points in eight of the last 13 games and 10 times on the season. He has connected on seven or more 3-pointers three times (seven vs.  Arizona, Nov. 26; seven at Nevada, Dec. 18; career-high eight vs. Pacific, Dec. 23).
• The Portland game was the first time in school history two Bronco players made at least 13 free throws. Brownridge was 13-for-13 and Feagin 13 of 14. Brownridge is the fifth Santa Clara player on record to be perfect from the line in Leavey Center with at least 10 attempts. The last was Steve Nash who made all 21 of his attempts (a school record) vs. Saint Mary's on Jan. 7, 1995
• Sophomore forward Jarvis Pugh made his return from a knee injury vs. Saint Mary's, playing 24 minutes and scoring six points to go with four rebounds. However, he had to sit out the last eight games with the same ailment.

Scouting the Pilots...
Portland, 9-14 on the season, has lost its last three after defeating BYU, 84-81, at home on Jan. 16. The Pilots possess one of the more potent offenses in the league. They have scored more than 80 points nine times and average 77.9 per game, fourth in the league behind BYU (83.4), Gonzaga (79.3) and Saint Mary's (78.6). Junior guard Alec Wintering leads the team in scoring (18.0 ppg) and assists (5.5 pg). Those marks both rank fifth in the WCC. He is also second in the league in steals (1.7 pg). Senior guard Bryce Pressley is second on the team in scoring (14.0 ppg) and is second in rebounding (4.8 pg). Wintering had his second-lowest field-goal percentage of the season (17.6/3 of 17) in the first meeting with Santa Clara.

The Portland Series...
The series began in 1946 with Santa Clara leading, 59-33. The Broncos 84-77 victory on Jan. 2 snapped a three-game winning streak for the Pilots. The Broncos captured the previous three.

Notables...
• Nate Kratch and KJ Feagin have been the team's most accurate shooters. Kratch has connected on 56.5 percent from the floor (fourth in the WCC), scoring mostly in the paint, while Feagin has hit 44.3 percent of his field-goal attempts on a mix of drives and jump shots. Forward Jarvis Pugh has connected on 50 percent from the floor, though he has missed 15 games with a knee injury.
• In 10 conference games, three players - Henrik Jadersten (46.4/13 of 28), Jared Brownridge (43.7/31 of 71) and Kai Healy (41.7/10 of 24) - have each hit at better than a 40-percent clip on 3-pointers. Jadersten ranks tied for 12th in the WCC during league action.
• Feagin has been one of the top producing freshman in the WCC. He has totaled 77 assists during the last 15 games (5.1 pg), including a career-high nine vs. Saint Mary's (Dec. 21) and USF (Jan. 21). His assist-to-turnover ratio in that span is 2.6-to-1. During league action, he ranks fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4-to-1), including second among freshmen.
• Brownridge and Kratch are the only players to start all 22 games. Feagin has started 21, while Kai Healy is fourth with 13. Emmanuel Ndumanya made his first career start in the first Gonzaga game (Dec. 31) and was also in the starting lineup the last seven games. Until that Gonzaga game, the Broncos used the same starting lineup - Kratch, Hubbard, Brownridge, Feagin and Healy - for six straight outings. Ndumanya replaced Hubbard, who injured an ankle in the previous game vs. Saint Mary's (Dec. 23), in the starting lineup vs. the Bulldogs. Hubbard started the previous eight games.

By The Numbers…
1...KJ Feagin is first in the WCC among freshmen in assists (4.1 pg) and free-throw percentage (78.8).
2...Jared Brownridge is second in the WCC in minutes played (35.8 pg).
3...Jared Brownridge is one of only three players in the NCAA to rank in the top 40 in both made free throws (t-39th at 106) and 3-pointers (t-25th at 62) this season.  Josh Adams of Wyoming (t-35th in 3-pointers/3rd in free throws) and Frank Eaves of Appalachian St. (t-10th in 3-pointers/t-36th free throws) are the other two.
7...The Broncos have used seven different starting lineups this season, but the same one in the last eight games.
8...Nate Kratch has eight rebounds in 13 of 22  games this season, including 12 vs. UC Riverside (Nov 19), 14 vs. UC Irvine (Nov. 23), 12 vs. San Jose State, 18 vs. Pacific Union (Dec. 5) and 14 vs. Portland (Jan. 2).
40.5...Average career games played among the 12 active players on the roster (freshmen Tony Lewis and Bryson Lockley have not played). That group has played in a total of 486 games, with juniors Jared Brownridge (87) and Nate Kratch (87) accounting for 174.