Dec. 11, 2009
Behind Marc Trasolini's second double-double of the season, and the third of his career, the Broncos defeated Dominican College 69-65. After a slow start in the first half, including 13 first-half turnovers, the Broncos used a 15-3 run to take control of the game in the second half. Santa Clara moves to 5-4 and Dominican falls to 2-6.
Santa Clara will travel to Houston on Saturday with games at Houston Baptist (1-7) on Mon., Dec. 14 and another at Rice (4-4) on Wed., Dec. 16 before returning home to host eight straight home games.
SCU shot 45.7 percent, including 8.3 percent beyond the arc. SCU had 36 rebounds, seven blocks and 10 steals with 21 turnovers. Dominican shot 41.8 percent, including 36.4 percent beyond the arc. Dominican had 25 rebounds, one block and 11 steals with 20 turnovers.
The Broncos were led by Trasolini who scored 22 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had one block. Robert Smith had 16 points and two assists. Troy Payne finished with eight rebounds, five assists, four steals, two blocks and two points. Austin Bryan led the Penguins with 16 points. Alex Ward added 13 points and Killian Larson finished with 12 points for Dominican.
Santa Clara took the lead right away with baskets from Chris Cunningham and Trasolini on its first two possessions. However, Dominican answered with a 16-6 run to make the score 16-10. Larson scored seven points for the Penguins during that span.
Throughout much of the first half the Broncos wasted a countless number of possessions due to turnovers and the Penguins controlled much of the half. The Broncos had 13 turnovers in the half.
Trasolini reentered the game and scored six straight points for the Broncos and Robert Smith hit a three to cut Dominican's lead down to one with 9:48 left.
Dominican stormed right back with an 8-0 run to push the lead to 28-19. During that run Austin Bryan hit two three pointers for the Penguins.
Two free throws by Michael Santos at 3:40 cut Dominican's lead down to four at 32-28.
Mark Lewis finished a three point play with 51.9 seconds left in the half to push the Penguins lead to seven. Trasolini's bucket with 36 seconds in the half cut the score to 37-32, which was the score at the half.
The second half started well for the Broncos as Smith nailed a jump shot on Santa Clara's first possession and Cowels hit two free throws at 17:34 to cut Dominican's lead down to one. Smith then finished a layup to put the Broncos in front for the first time since 16:27 left in the first half.
A free throw by Xander McNally tied the game at 42 and a layup by Fox Mulholland put the Penguins up 44-43 with 13:08 in the game.
Smith hit a jump shot with 10:12 left to put the Broncos up 49-46, but the Penguins responded and Xavier Muldrow's layup put Dominican up 50-49 with 9:03 left in the game.
Santa Clara then erupted for a 15-4 run after Ben Dowdell hit two free throws with 4:17 remaining to put the Broncos up 64-54. The run was highlighted by a dunk by Trasolini off a behind-the-back pass by Payne.
The Penguins cut the Bronco's lead down to 68-65 with a three from Alastair Flack with 25 seconds left but a free throw from Smith pushed the score to 69-65.
