SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After wins in their first four games of the season, including three in the Bronco Invitational, Santa Clara men's basketball will play its first road contest of the season, facing Cal Poly on Wednesday.

Tipoff between the Broncos and Mustangs is set for 6 p.m. from Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, California. Per San Luis Obispo County regulations, no spectators will be allowed inside the facility.

Last time out, the Broncos had to grind out a 53-47 victory over CSU Bakersfield by forcing 19 turnovers and holding the Roadrunners to 32 percent shooting from the floor. Josip Vrankic had all 11 of his points in the second half and Christian Carlyle scored nine, including hitting 7 of 8 free throws in Wednesday's victory in Santa Cruz, California.

Santa Clara scheduled a game against New Mexico State for Saturday, but that was canceled.

The Broncos and Mustangs are meeting for the second-straight season. Santa Clara won 77-63 in Leavey Center on Nov. 8, 2019.

QUICK HITS...
• The Broncos are coming off a 20-13 mark last season, their first 20-win campaign in seven years and just fourth occurence in the last 19.
• Wednesday's win over CSU Bakersfield gave the Broncos their 21st-straight nonconference home win. Santa Clara opened last season by winning its first 15 games in Leavey Center and has won 22 of its last 27 at home.
• Santa Clara returns four starters and seven of its top nine scorers from last season, including preseason All-West Coast Conference performer Josip Vrankic, a three-year starter. The senior ranked first on the team in scoring (12.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.4 pg) last season. DJ Mitchell was third in scoring (10.7 ppg) and second in rebounding (5.2 pg).
• Before his injury at the beginning of league play last year, junior Guglielmo Caruso was among the most productive and efficient big men in the WCC. He would have ranked first in the league in field-goal percentage (66.1) and third in blocked shots (1.1 pg) but did not appear in enough games to qualify. Caruso missed the last two games of the Bronco Invitational due to concussion protocol after being injured against Idaho State (Nov. 25).
• Mitchell and junior Keshawn Justice were two of the top three 3-point shooting threats in the league in 2019-20. They each shot 38 percent from behind the 3-point line.
• The Broncos had two of more productive first-year players in the WCC a year ago. Jaden Bediako was a member of the WCC All-Freshman team and Jalen Williams proved to be one of the most explosive first-year players in the league. Bediako was inserted into the starting lineup for Caruso as conference play opened and went on to average a team-best 11.9 rebounds per 40 minutes of play. Williams started the final 23 games and tallied the third-most steals (44) by a freshman in school history.
• Newcomers include freshman guard Trent Hudgens Jr. and three transfers in Christian Carlyle (Florida Gulf Coast), Joe Foley (Lehigh) and Vittorio Reynoso-Avila (Princeton). Carlyle and Reynoso-Avila are graduate transfers.

YEAR FIVE UNDER SENDEK...
The Broncos are in their 114th year, including fifth under Herb Sendek, who has been successful in each of his four head-coaching stops. With a resume that includes 18 postseason appearances and three conference coach of the year awards, Sendek has led the Broncos to three winning seasons, including a 20-13 mark in 2019-20. The program had not recorded three winning seasons during a four-year stretch since Dick Davey led it to seven in a row from 1994-95 through 2000-01. Sendek is in his 27th season as a collegiate head coach with stops at Arizona State, North Carolina State and Miami (Ohio).

THE CAL POLY SERIES...
Santa Clara leads the all-time series, 5-4, though Cal Poly has captured three of the last four meetings. The Mustangs won the two prior meetings at home. This will be the third Big West opponent of the season for the Broncos who have a 71-30 all-time record vs. current teams from the league (UC Santa Barbara 15-12; CSUN 3-0; UC Riverside 1-1; UC Davis 18-2; UC Irvine 0-5; Cal Poly 5-4; CSU Bakersfield 5-0; Long Beach State 0-0; Cal State Fullerton 3-10).

TEAM NOTES...
• Santa Clara joins top-ranked Gonzaga (3-0) among West Coast Conference schools without a loss this season.
• The Broncos hold a +5.0 rebounding and +3.8 turnover margin through four games. They have also held the opposition to 54.0 points per game and 32.0 percent shooting from the floor. Both of those marks rank No. 7 in the NCAA.
• Santa Clara is averaging 5.0 blocks per game, which ranks No. 40 in the nation. The Broncos have blocked 15 shots over the last two games.
• The Broncos ranked third in the WCC in free-throw shooting (74.2 percent) in 2019-20, but has struggled this season, connecting on only 62.4 percent, including hitting one of six attempts in the final 30 seconds against UC Davis (Nov. 27). However, the Broncos connected on 65.2 (15 of 23) vs. Nicholls (Nov. 28) and a season-best 71.0 percent (22 of 31) vs. CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES...
• Josip Vrankic leads the team in scoring (18.8 ppg) and is second in both rebounding (7.3 pg) and assists (2.5 pg). Jaden Bediako leads the Broncos in rebounding (9.8) and has 17 of the team's 46 offensive boards. Christian Carlyle, a graduate transfer Florida Gulf Coast, is the top distributor with 4.0 assists per game.
• Jalen Williams, the team's second-leading scorer (9.3 ppg), was most productive in the second half of the first two games. He had 23 of his 27 points on 9 of 13 (69.2 percent) from the fields and posted four of his five steals after intermission against Idaho State (Nov. 25) and UC Davis (Nov. 27). He missed the second half against CSU Bakersfield (Dec. 2) due to a foot injury. His four steals against Idaho State were one off his career-high of five set vs. Gonzaga (Jan. 30, 2020). Williams led the team last season with 44 steals.

NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS...
The Broncos have won their last nine nonconference games overall and 21 nonleague home contests, the longest stretch in school history. The last overall loss was a 97-68 road defeat at the hands of Nevada on Dec. 4, 2019. Idaho State was the last nonconference foe to knock off the Broncos in Leavey Center, escaping with a 68-66 victory on Dec. 7, 2018.

RADIO/LIVE STREAM
Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calls the action for his 14th season. All Santa Clara home games and West Coast Conference contests (not on an ESPN platform, CBS Sports Network or BYUtv) will be streamed through WCC Network (local blackout restrictions apply for games broadcast over the air). In addition, audio for all home and most road games can be heard on the TuneIn app. The Lunardi's Market's Pregame Show begins 10 minutes prior to tipoff on TuneIn. However, there will be no audio stream for Wednesday's road game vs. Cal Poly.

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