SANTA CLARA, Calif. – There was no shortage of effort in Santa Clara men's basketball's narrow loss to Gonzaga. The Broncos gave the ninth-ranked Bulldogs everything they could handle and held a one-point lead inside the final 90 seconds, but ultimately were just unable to hold on down the stretch as they dropped to 2-2 in WCC play with an 81-76 loss.
The Broncos had four players scored in double figures led by a game-high 22 points from captain Keshawn Justice, his third 20-point game of the season. The Madison, Wisc., product was 9-of-17 from the floor and knocked down four of his nine 3-point attempts while also dishing out four assists to go with a pair of steals.
Sophomore guards Brandin Podziemski and Carlos Stewart continued their strong play with 17 and 11 points, respectively. Podziemski shot an even .500 (7-of-14) and pulled down seven rebounds to go with five assists. For the second-straight game, Stewart came away with three steals, and dished out four assists to go with four rebounds.
Parker Braun notched his second-career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out late in the contest.
The Broncos edged Gonzaga in shooting, knocking down 47.2 percent (34-72) against 46.9 percent (30-64). It's the first time this season that SCU has lost when shooting better than their opponent (11-1).
Santa Clara couldn't have asked for a better start to the night. Fueled by a sellout crowd of 4,200, the Broncos rattled off a 12-0 run to grab an early double-digit lead at 20-8 just before the under-12 timeout. SCU's lead grew to as much as 14 before Gonzaga began to claw their way back, using a 13-0 run of their own to cut it back to a one-point game at 30-29. The teams exchanged buckets seven more times down the stretch with a Stewart layup serving as the bookend to give the Broncos a 37-36 lead at the break.
The second half was a tight affair from start to finish with a total of 13 lead changes. Santa Clara led by three with 8:43 remaining after Justice knocked down his fourth triple of the game, but Gonzaga grabbed control of the lead by scoring seven-straight and pushed that lead to five on a Julian Strawther layup with 3:40 to play.
The Broncos rose to the occasion as they locked down on defense with Justice sparking a 6-0 run that ended with Stewart knocking down a mid-range 2-pointer to grab the lead at 74-73 with just 1:36 remaining.
As all great teams do, Gonzaga (14-3, 3-0 WCC) answered with a triple to grab the lead right back, forcing the Broncos to turn to fouling as a last-ditch effort to hold on. The Zags hit four-straight free throws to make it a two-possession game, which proved to be enough to escape with the victory.
Drew Timme and Nolan Hickman each scored 20 points to pace the Bulldogs while Strawther adding 18 more.
As two of the top rebounding teams in the WCC, it's no surprise that the rebounding battle ended in a stalemate with each team pulling down 39.
The Broncos will have plenty of time to regroup as they have a week to prepare for a short road trip to Stockton to take on Pacific on Saturday, Jan. 14.
POSTGAME INTERVIEW
Coach Sendek shares his postgame thoughts with @PassarelliVoice #StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/KzYRXjmsqL
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 8, 2023
GAME NOTES
- Keshawn Justice moved up to 18th place on the school's all-time win list with 1.418 points, surpassing Nick Vanos (1981-95).
- Justice also moved up on the career 3-point attempts list with his nine attempts on the evening. He jumped over Kyle Bailey's (2001-05) 679 attempts with a total of 685.
