STOCKTON, Calif. – Keshawn Justice once again was the man of the hour for Santa Clara men's basketball, tallying his second-straight game of 20 or more points with a career-high tying 26 points on 6-of-15 shooting from 3-point range as the Broncos took care of Pacific on the road with a 92-81 victory on Saturday evening.
Justice, coming off a 22-point outing against No. 9 Gonzaga, continued to solidify himself as one of the premier players in program history with his six treys moving him ahead of Steve Nash for the third most 3-pointers made. He also moved up to 17th on the school's all-time scoring list, surpassing Bud Ogden with 1,444 points.
Justice was one of five Broncos that finished in double figures in scoring in a night that saw every player that played finish with at least four points. Parker Braun turned in his second-consecutive double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Carlos Stewart scored 21 points for his sixth 20-point game on the season while Jaden Bediako finished with 10 points and six rebounds, and Brenton Knapper tallied a career-high 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
It was a dominating effort all-around for the 15-5 Broncos, who improved to 3-2 in league play with the victory despite not having leading scorer Brandin Podziemski (injury) in the lineup for the first time all season. Santa Clara shot 47.8 percent from the floor (33-69) while holding the Tigers to just 43.5 percent (27-62). The Broncos were suffocating on the boards with a 48-26 advantage off the glass, including a 15-7 advantage on the offensive boards.
Santa Clara jumped on top of the Tigers early on in the opening half with Justice knocking down five of his six treys in the opening 20 minutes. Leading by six with four minutes to play in the period, the Broncos closed out the half on a 15-6 run that included a trio of 3-pointers from Justice and one more just before the buzzer by Stewart to take a commanding 51-39 lead into the locker room.
The second half saw much of the same as the Broncos maintained the lead for the rest of the night. Pacific (10-10, 3-2) knocked down back-to-back treys to open the half to cut the deficit to single digits, but that was as close as the Tigers would get as SCU held no worse than a nine-point advantage the rest of the way and led by as much as 18 with 4:30 remaining.
Freshman Kosy Akametu got the starting nod in place of the injured Podziemski and made the most of his first collegiate start by finishing with seven points and a season-best seven rebounds.
Pacific was led by Judson Martindale's 17 points.
The Broncos return to action on Thursday, Jan. 19, at home against BYU. The game is set for an 8:00 p.m. PT tip and will be aired live on CBS Sports Network.
POSTGAME INTERVIEWS
Broncos scored a season-best 92 points in tonight's victory. @HerbSendek joined @PassarelliVoice to discuss the win#StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/5q1yacmLs1
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 15, 2023
.@tiggo3justice also joined the postgame show following his big night#StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/cLaja0UIKB
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) January 15, 2023
GAME NOTES
- Santa Clara's 92 points were a season high and their first 90-point game of the season.
- This is the fourth time this season in which two Broncos finished with 20-plus points in the same game. They are 4-0 in such games.
- Five Broncos scored in double figures for the third time this season and the first since the win over San Francisco.
- The win was No. 525 for Herb Sendek's career, tying him with Pete Carril (Princeton) and Gregg Marshall (Wichita State and Winthrop) for 63rd most all-time.
- Stewart finished the night with three steals for the third-straight game.
- The Broncos have now won five-straight over Pacific and are 103-47 all-time against the Tigers.
