SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's basketball heads back on the road to face Loyola Marymount on Saturday.

Tipoff between the Broncos and Lions (7-5, 2-2) is set for 4 p.m. in Gersten Pavilion.

Santa Clara (8-4, 2-2) is coming off a 73-50 home loss to San Francisco on Thursday after playing its previous four games on the road. 

The Lions fell at home to Saint Mary's, 65-61, on Thursday, but had won five of their previous six outings.

Santa Clara and LMU were scheduled to meet on Jan. 2 in Santa Cruz, California, but that was game was postponed and yet to be rescheduled.

The Broncos have won two of three on the road in West Coast Conference play. The Lions are 7-1 at home on the season, including 2-1 in league contests.

QUICK HITS...
• Santa Clara has won at least eight of its first 12 games for just the second time in the last eight seasons. The Broncos were 10-2 in 2019-20 and their 6-0 start this year was tied for the eighth-best in school history.
• Santa Clara has won 23 of its last 30 home games, including a 5-2 mark this year.
• The Broncos are coming off a 20-13 mark last season, their first 20-win campaign in seven years and just fourth occurrence in the last 19.
• Santa Clara has 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.
• 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 Broncos had only three winning records in the previous 15 seasons, and the program had not recorded three winning campaigns 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).

��️ Coach @HerbSendek is on the mic ahead of today's road contest at LMU!

More from Coach during the Lunardi's Markets pregame show on TuneIn (audio). Watch the game on NBC California, FOX RSN, or WCC Network (local blackout).#TeamFirst #StampedeAhead #WCCHoops pic.twitter.com/WiYxWrMc0o

— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 23, 2021

THE LMU SERIES...
In a series that began in 1937, Santa Clara holds a 91-63 lead. The teams have split the last 12 meetings, but LMU was won the last four. The Broncos have captured three of the last five meetings in Los Angeles. LMU won last year's only meeting 65-59 in Santa Clara. LMU first-year head coach Stan Johnson served as an assistant for Herb Sendek at Arizona State.

TEAM NOTES...
• Santa Clara's win at Saint Mary's on Jan. 9, was its second straight in Moraga, California. The Broncos hadn't won in back-to-back seasons at Saint Mary's since 2001-02 and 2002-03.
• The Broncos have played four home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena due to COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County. There have been four cancellations (Dec. 5 vs. New Mexico State; Dec. 12 vs. Sacramento State; Dec. 18 vs. San Jose State; Dec. 23 vs. Bethesda) and one postponement (Jan. 2 vs. LMU) in games scheduled for the facility. The team is also practicing in Santa Cruz.
• Santa Clara has held the opposition to 38.3percent shooting from the floor (No. 12 in the NCAA) and 65.4 points per game (No. 3 in the WCC).
• The Broncos have struggled shooting from outside, connecting on just 29.4 percent from behind the 3-point line (10th in the WCC) though they have connected on 42.4 percent (28 of 66) in the last four games. They had season-highs in percentage (55.0) and made 3-pointers (11) in Sunday's San Diego contest.
• Santa Clara is averaging 4.5 blocks, which ranks 41st in the nation, and 30.3 defensive rebounds, ninth-most nationally, per game.
• The Broncos ranked third in the WCC in free-throw shooting (74.2 percent) in 2019-20, but have struggled overall this season, connecting on only 65.9 percent (ninth in the WCC). However, Santa Clara shot a season-best 77.8 percent (14 of 18) from the free-throw line against both Saint Mary's (Jan. 9) and Pacific (Jan. 16).

INDIVIDUAL NOTES...
• Josip Vrankic leads the team in scoring (14.0 ppg) and is second in the WCC in rebounding (8.2 pg). Vrankic and Eli Scott of LMU are the only players in the WCC averaging at least 14.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Jaden Bediako is third on the team in rebounding (6.1 pg) and sixth in the WCC in offensive rebounding (2.1 pg). Bediako has two or more blocked shots in six games. His 1.8 blocks per contest rank No. 2 in the WCC.
• Christian Carlyle, a graduate transfer Florida Gulf Coast, is four on the team in scoring (8.5 ppg). Keshawn Justice is second on the team in both scoring (11.0 ppg) and rebounding (5.8 pg), and first in assists (2.1 pg). Justice, who missed Thursday's game against San Francisco, has carried the offensive load recently, averaging 17.0 points on 17 of 32 shooting from the floor (53.1 percent), including 8-for-15 on 3-pointers (53.3 percent), in his last three appearances.
• Jalen Williams ranks third on the team in scoring (9.0 ppg) and his offensive production has steadily increased since missing two games (Cal Poly, Dec. 9; Fresno Pacific, Dec. 15) with a foot injury. He had a season-best 15 points in Sunday's win at San Diego and the same output in Thursday's loss to San Francosco. He has gone 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line in the last two games after connecting on only 3-for-26 prior to that this season.

HOW TO WATCH ON THE WCC NETWORK
All Santa Clara home games and West Coast Conference contests not shown on a national platform (ESPN, CBS Sports Network or BYUtv) will be streamed through the WCC Network. Local blackout restrictions apply on WCC Network for regional TV broadcasts, including Saturday's matchup with LMU. All events that are not selected for a Stadium Plus broadcast or a national outlet, can be viewed on the following platforms:

• WCCsports.com
• Roku
• Android Device
• iOS Device: Mobile • tvOS
• FireTV

For home games not on national or regional TV, Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calls the action in his 14th season as Voice of the Broncos.

HOW TO LISTEN
All home games and most road contests can be heard on the TuneIn app. The Lunardi's Market's Pregame Show begins 10 minutes prior to tipoff with Anthony Passarelli (play-by-play) calling the action in his 14th season as Voice of the Broncos. Saturday's game at LMU can be heard on TuneIn with pregame beginning at 3:55 p.m.

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