SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Jared Brownridge scored a game-high 19 points, including six in the final minute, to help the Santa Clara men's basketball team outlast San Diego, 74-71, Thursday night in West Coast Conference action.
The Broncos got 39 points from their four bench players, including a career highs by Henrik Jadersten (12) and Brendyn Taylor (10).
"I was really impressed with our bench tonight and we needed it," Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating said. "Not just the point production, but they were in at crunch time."
Two free throws by Olin Carter III of San Diego (8-16, 3-10) cut the deficit to 65-63 with 2:36 left, but Brownridge hit one of two free throws on the next trip down the floor and then converted a transition layup with 55 seconds remaining.
The junior guard then went 4-for-4 from the line and KJ Feagin nailed both of his free throw attempts in the final 36 seconds as the Broncos swept the season series from the Toreros, who came into the game having won two of their last three after dropping eight of nine.
"KJ wasn't playing great, but what he's been doing since he struggled at the end of the Pacific game, is making free throws and that's what he did tonight," Keating said.
Feagin had only seven points on 2-for-7 shooting from the field, but has now connected on 34 of his last 37 attempts from the free-throw line.
Duda Sanadze had a team-high 18 points for the Toreros who held a 33-27 rebounding edge, but committed 15 turnovers. Carter III had 14 points and Vasa Pusica chipped in 11.
Brett Bailey, who scored a career-high 22 points in last month's meeting in San Diego with the Broncos, posted a game-high 11 rebounds.
Both teams were hampered with foul trouble. Emmanuel Ndumnaya fouled out in only nine minutes, while three other Broncos ended the game with four fouls. The Toreros had four players with four fouls, including Sanadze, Carter and center Jito Kok, the leading shot blocker in the league, who played only 21 minutes.
The Broncos took advantage by going 11-for-12 from the free-throw line in the second half. They also committed only three turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
Santa Clara hit just one of its first nine field goals of the second half, but then connected on nine of its next 10 attempts to build a 59-52 lead with 9:29 left in the game.
Carter's 3-pointer with 5:04 remaining cut the deficit to 61-60, but the Toreros were never able to pull into the lead in the final 14 minutes of the game.
The Broncos used the long-distance shot to build its first lead of the game after the teams combined to commit eight turnovers (four apiece) in the opening five minutes of the first half.
Santa Clara didn't make its second basket until there was less than 13 minutes left in the first half, but erased a 7-point deficit. The Broncos went 6-for-11 beyond the 3-point line in the first half.
Jadersten, who matched his career high with 10 points in the first half, scored eight in the final 7 minutes. His 3-pointer gave the Broncos a 22-21 lead and started a 17-5 run.
But after the Broncos led 36-26 with less than 2 minutes left in the half, they surrendered the final six points to the Toreros.
Taylor dished out a career-high six assists and did not commit a turnover in 24 minutes of action.
Jadersten hit 4 of 8 field goal attempts and had a career-best eight rebounds.
Matt Hubbard came off the bench to score nine points and Matt Hauser score eight with four assists.
Santa Clara closes out the week with a home game Saturday vs. BYU. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at Leavey Center.
Notes: With 19 points, Jared Brownridge (1,573) moved from 13th to 12th on the school's career scoring list, passing Kyle Bailey (1,571/2001-05) … with two assists, KJ Feagin moved from fourth to third on the school's all-time freshman list, passing Robert Smith who had 97 in 2009-10 … Kai Healy hit a career-best five free throws on six attempts … San Diego has two former members of the Santa Clara staff. Lamont Smith, an assistant coach at Santa Clara in 2007-08, is in his first season as USD's head coach. In addition, assistant coach Sam Scholl spent the previous eight seasons in the same role at Santa Clara.
The San Diego Series: The series began in 1953 with Santa Clara now leading 45-35. The series has been evenly matched in recent years. The teams split a pair of meetings in each of the last two seasons. Santa Clara captured both meetings in 2012-13 and San Diego won the two the year before. The Broncos won 65-53 on Jan. 9 in San Diego.
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