PROVO, Utah – It was a night to remember for Santa Clara men's basketball in what will be their final regular-season game against BYU as members of the same conference. For the first time since December 2, 1972, the Broncos went into Provo and came away victorious over the Cougars, breaking a streak of 10-straight road losses with an 81-74 victory on Thursday evening inside the Marriott Center. The win also secured the regular-season sweep over BYU for just the first time since 1961-62.
The victory was No. 20 on the year for Santa Clara, securing their second-straight 20-win campaign – a feat that has not been accomplished since the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. It also gives SCU their third 20-win season in the last four years. You have to go back even further to find the last time that happened – 1982-83 through 1984-85 when the Broncos had three-straight 20-win campaigns under head coach Carroll Williams.
Santa Clara (20-8, 8-5) came out with a purpose, quickly mounting a 17-point advantage at 37-20 at halftime to quiet the crowd of 13,321. They would go on to lead by as much as 20 in the second half before BYU chipped things down to nine points with just about 100 seconds remaining. Fortunately, the Broncos knocked down seven of their 10 free throws attempts down the stretch in BYU's must-foul situations to preserve a double-digit advantage that held until a late Cougar trey in the waning moments made it a seven-point affair at game's end.
As they've done all season, it was Brandin Podziemski and Keshawn Justice who posted big scoring numbers to pace the Bronco offense that saw every player that played finish with at least one point. Podziemski led all scorers with 26 points on 9-of-15 shooting with a 3-for-5 mark from distance while also pulling down a game-best 12 rebounds for double-double No. 9 on the season. The sophomore also maintained his season average for assists with three on the night and came away with a steal – his 50th of the season.
Justice also logged some big numbers with a 19-point night that pushed him up to 15th place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,557 points. Making his 100th career start as a Bronco, the Madison, Wisc. product was 3-for-5 from distance and also came away with five rebounds and four assists.
Parker Braun and Carlos Stewart each tallied eight points while Christoph Tilly notched seven points and Jaden Bediako pulled down seven rebounds to go with six points.
The Broncos cleaned up the glass with 44 rebounds to the Cougars' 38, including 35 on the defensive end. They finished the game just shy of 50 percent shooting with a 49.1 percent clip (28-of-57), was 7-for-13 from 3-point range and knocked down 18-of-27 attempts at the charity stripe.
BYU (16-13, 6-8) saw four players finish in double-figure scoring paced by Rudi Williams' 20 points. Fousseyni Traore pulled down 10 rebounds to go with 13 points for a double-double of his own. They were held to just 5-of-23 from 3-point range (21.7 percent).
With four-straight victories under their belt, the Broncos will look to extend the streak to five as they get ready to head to Portland to take on the Pilots for their only regular-season meeting on the year. Tip-off will be at 5:30 p.m. on the WCC Network.
POSTGAME INTERVIEWS
Coach Sendek and @PassarelliVoice discussed the Broncos' big road victory#StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/sko5UNINfu
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) February 17, 2023
Podz delivered double-double No. 9 with 26 pts and 12 reb tonight#StampedeAhead pic.twitter.com/RNOnYWOGTZ
— Santa Clara Men's Basketball (@SantaClaraHoops) February 17, 2023
GAME NOTES
- Santa Clara has now won three-straight over BYU dating back to last season. Prior to last season's thrilling win, the Broncos had not defeated the Cougars since 2017.
- Justice tallied his 48th career game with at least three 3-pointers.
- Justice also extended his season streak to 24-straight games with at least one 3-point field goal.
- Podziemski now has 12 20-point games on the year.
- The Broncos are now 16-3 when outrebounding their opponent.
- Santa Clara is also now 10-1 when scoring at least 80 points.
