Santa Clara Finishes Road Swing With Game Against LMU Monday Night

Posted: Feb 17, 2008

Feb. 17, 2008

Next Game
The Santa Clara Broncos finish their Southern California road trip with a game against the Loyola Marymount Lions on Monday, Feb. 18 at Gersten Pavilion. SCU will be looking for their second win of the season against LMU after beating them 58-35 at the Leavey Center. The game will be aired live on 1220 KNTS and SantaClaraBroncos.com. The Broncos fell 67-66 last season at Gersten Pavilion on a late basket by Loyola Marymount's Adoyah Miller.

Last Game
The Santa Clara Broncos did not have enough in the end and fell 64-58 to the Pepperdine Waves on Feb. 16 at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Broncos and Waves went back and forth all night, but Pepperdine pulled out the home victory. John Bryant shot a perfect 11-for-11 from the field on the way to 25 points to go along with 12 rebounds. He has now hit 17 straight shots over the past two games. Ben Dowdell and Mitch Henke also reached double figures for the Broncos in the loss, while Brody Angley added 11 assists.

Head Coach Kerry Keating
Santa Clara University named Kerry Keating head coach on April 6, 2007. Keating, 36, comes to SCU with a long coaching backgroud at a number of top programs. He is the 14th head coach in the 101 years of Bronco basketball and he is the first coach hired since Harlan Dykes in 1926 that had not previously attended SCU or served as an assistant coach on the Mission Campus. Most recently, Keating helped UCLA reach back-to-back Final Fours as an assistant coach on Ben Howland's staff in Westwood. He has also served as an assistant at Tennessee, Tulsa, Appalachian State, Seton Hall, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. He is off to a 12-12 start in his career at SCU.

SCU vs. LMU
Series Record: SCU leads 77-50
First Meeting: SCU 28-26 win on Feb. 10, 1937
2006-07 at SCU: LMU won 74-71
2006-07 at LMU: LMU won 67-66
Record at SCU: SCU leads 39-23
Record at LMU: SCU leads 36-24
Record at Neutral Site: LMU leads 3-2
Biggest SCU Win: 98-58 (40) on Feb. 25, 1994
Biggest LMU Win: 117-81 (36) on Feb. 24, 1990
Notes: Santa Clara and LMU have split their last 12 games ... SCU had a nine-game winning streak in the series between 1999-02 ... LMU swept the season series last year, winning two games by a total of four points ... The two teams have not played more than twice in a season since 2001 but have played three times or more in a season on seven occasions ... While a player at San Francisco, LMU head coach Rodney Tention's record against Santa Clara was 1-6 overall and 0-4 at Toso Pavilion ... LMU's Gersten Pavilion opened its doors on Jan. 15, 1982 with a men's basketball 83-68 loss to Santa Clara ... Santa Clara owns a 16-12 record at Gersten Pavilion, with includes a loss to Portland in the 1990 WCC Tournament.

Last Game vs. LMU
The Santa Clara Broncos recovered from an early deficit to earn a big 58-35 win over the Loyola Marymount Lions on Jan. 19 at the Leavey Center. SCU held the Lions to just 35 points, 15 in the second half, to get its first conference win of the year. Brody Angley scored 20 points for the Broncos and John Bryant recorded his seventh double double of the year with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Santa Clara held the Lions to just .333 shooting and .190 from 3-point range in the game.

Bryant Perfect
Santa Clara junior center John Bryant shot 11-for-11 on Feb. 16 against Pepperdine and scored 25 points. Over the past two games, Bryant has now made 17 straight field goal attempts. He made his last six shots on Feb. 11 against Saint Mary's.

Angley Hits 1,000
Santa Clara senior Brody Angley recached 1,000 points for his career with a second half free throw on Feb. 4 against the Portland Pilots. He is the 26th player in school history to reach 1,000. With 1,019 points following the Broncos game on Feb. 16, he is now 24th on the all-time scoring list. He is 13 points behind DeWayne Lewis (1990-94) for 23rd all-time.

Bryant Nearing 1,000
Junior center John Bryant is also closing in on 1,000 points in his career at SCU. He has scored 956 points with five regular season games remaining. At his current pace, he would reach the 1,000 point mark in the last regular season game.

Bryant Rebounding
Junior John Bryant now has 230 rebounds this season after pulling down 12 on Feb. 16. He also has 617 career rebounds. He is 43 rebounds away from entering the top 10 for single season rebounds and 45 away from entering the top 10 all-time in career rebounds at Santa Clara.

Dominant Defense
Santa Clara put the clamps on Loyola Marymount's offense on Jan. 19 with an amazing defensive effort. SCU held the Lions to just 35 points in the game, the lowest the Broncos have allowed since an 86-35 win over Notre Dame de Namur on Dec. 20, 2005. The total is the lowest allowed against a conference opponent since a 40-33 Bronco win over Saint Mary's on Feb. 20, 1988. The Lions point total was the lowest against SCU since winning 33-31 on Feb. 7, 1938. As part of the defensive effort on Jan. 19, SCU held the Lions to just 10 points from the 15:34 mark of the first half until the 17:47 mark of the second half, a stretch of 17:47.

More Defense
Santa Clara held Loyola Marymount to a season low 14 field goals in the game on Jan. 19, while forcing them to shoot .190 from 3-point range and .333 overall. The .190 from beyond the arc was the worst shooting performance against the Broncos this year and the .333 was the third worst shooting overall against SCU.

Dowdell and Henke
Senior Mitch Henke and freshman Ben Dowdell both had solid games on Feb. 16 vs. Pepperdine. Henke scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists and had two steals. It was his highest scoring game of the WCC season. Dowdell had gone four games without reaching double figures in scoring before going for 11 on Saturday night. He also tied his career high with seven blocks, while recording a career high two blocks.

Shooting Percentage
After shooting 57 percent from the floor against Pepperdine on Feb. 16, SCU has broken the 50 percent barrier 11 times. Santa Clara shot .667 from the floor on Jan. 21 against Pepperdine, tying for the seventh best shooting performance in school history. The season high of .718 was set on Nov. 25 at Sacramento State. That performance at Sacramento State was the second best shooting percentage in Santa Clara history. For the game, SCU hit .718 percent from the field and in the second half, the team hit .864 percent (19-of-22). The all-time program record for shooting in a game is .719, set on Jan. 4, 1980 against Pepperdine.

Injury Update
Sophomore Zac Tiedeman suffered a left knee sprain on Saturday, Jan. 26 at San Diego. He has missed the past five games and is expected to be out 2-3 more weeks. Andrew Zimmermann was diagnosed with an enlarged spleen this week and did not make the trip to Southern California with the team.

Bryant Double Doubles
John Bryant notched his 12th double double of the year on Feb. 16 at Pepperdine with 25 points and 12 rebounds. He has had seven double doubles in nine conference games. He also earned them against Saint Mary's (2), Loyola Marymount, San Diego, San Francisco and Portland, but just missed a double double on Jan. 21 vs. Pepperdine with 14 points and nine rebounds. Bryant is now averaging a double double in conference games, 18.3 ppg and a league high 11.0 rpg. He also has had double doubles against Cal State Monterey Bay on Nov. 9, Sacramento State on Nov. 25, San Jose State on Dec. 8, Montana on Dec. 17 and Denver on Dec. 28. Bryant had five double doubles in 2006-07 and four double doubles as a freshman during the 2005-06 season.

Angley Double Double
Senior point guard Brody Angley notched his fourth career double double and third of the season on Jan. 28 at San Francisco. Angley scored 11 points and had 10 assists against USF. He also had double doubles on Jan. 21 vs. Pepperdine, notching career highs in points (24) and assists (13), and Dec. 29 vs. Niagara, scoring 10 points and tying his career high with 11 rebounds. His only previous double double came on Nov. 26, 2005 against Pacific when he scored 12 points and grabbd a career high 11 rebounds.

Bryant's Consistency
Junior center John Bryant has had an impressive season so far for Santa Clara. He has scored in double figures in 23 out of 24 games, including a career high 29 at Simpson on Nov. 13. He has also scored over 20 points 11 times. He has also grabbed at least four rebounds in every game. The San Pablo, Calif. native has recorded seven or more rebounds 18 times.

Conference Stats
The 2007-08 Broncos are among the leaders in a number of statistical categories in the West Coast Conference. SCU is tied for first in field goal percentage (.486), first in 3-point field goal percentage (.380), first in scoring defense (61.8), first in rebounding defense (27.8) and tied for first in free throw percentage (.713). Individually, John Bryant is second in scoring (18.0), first in rebounding (9.6), first in field goal percentage (.603) and first in blocked shots (2.29). He is also first in double doubles with 12. Brody Angley is second in assists (5.46), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.60), eighth in 3-point percentage at .394 and tied for eighth in free throw percentage (.776). Jonathan Gunderson and Calvin Johnson are third and seventh in 3-point field goal percentage at .431 and .403 respectively.

Conference Only Stats
In West Coast Conference games, John Bryant and Brody Angley have been dominant. Bryant is second in scoring at 18.3 points per game and first in rebounding (11.0) and blocked shots (2.78). Angley is fifth in scoring at 13.9 points per game and second in assists at 6.22 per game. Bryant and Angley are also fourth and seventh in free throw percentage at .827 and .742 respectively.

Dowdell's Roll
Freshman Ben Dowdell scored only four points at San Francisco on Jan. 28. However, prior to that performance, he had been on a roll for SCU. He scored 13 points, grabbed four rebounds and notched a block and a steal at San Diego on Jan. 26. He also converted a last-minute three-point play that put SCU up 51-50. Following that game he had scored in double figures in five of the seven games after accomplishing that only once in his first 11 games. He raised his scoring average from 4.6 following the Minnesota game on Dec. 22 to 7.8 after the game at San Diego. He has also shown a knack for getting to the free throw line, taking at least four free throws in eight straight games from Dec. 28-Jan. 26.

Angley Racks Up The Minutes
Senior Brody Angley is used to playing a lot of minutes, as he was averaging 28.4 minutes per game for his career coming into this season. However, this year, Angley has been an iron man, playing 36.1 minutes per game to lead the Broncos in that category. In the seven games prior to the Saint Mary's game on Jan. 12, he had not played fewer than 35 minutes in any game. Against Saint Mary's, foul trouble forced him to play just 31 minutes, his lowest total since he played 31 on Dec. 8 against San Jose State. In the seven games from Jan. 19-Feb. 11, Angley averaged 39.1 minutes per game.

On the Road
Santa Clara is currently 6-7 on the road this season. With one more road win, SCU will match last season's total of seven road wins. The Broncos went 5-2 on the road in conference play last season.

On the Boards
Santa Clara has held the rebounding edge in 15 of its 24 games this season and have been outrebounded in six games, Stanford on Dec. 19, Niagara on Dec. 29, San Jose State on Jan. 7, Saint Mary's on Jan. 12, at San Diego on Jan. 26 and vs. Portland on Feb. 4. Santa Clara and Utah State each had 26 boards on Dec. 1 and SCU and Pacific each had 32 on Dec. 12. SCU and Pepperdine also tied in rebonding with 33 apiece on Feb. 16. Overall, the Broncos have outrebounded opponents 768-668 for a +4.2 margin.

Double Digits
Santa Clara defeated Portland by two points (52-50) on Feb. 4. The game marked just the third time this year that SCU has won by less than 10 points. The Broncos have earned nine of their 12 victories by 10 points or more this season. Their three single-digit wins were by nine points, vs. Eastern Washington on Nov. 29 (66-57), vs. Denver on Dec. 28 (74-65 in OT) and vs. Portland on Feb. 4 (52-50).

Free Throw Line
SCU has improved significantly at the free throw line this season through 24 games. The Broncos are shooting 71 percent from the charity stripe this year after shooting 67 percent last season.

Threes
Senior Brody Angley, junior Calvin Johnson and sophomore Jonathan Gunderson are all shooting well from 3-point range this year. Gunderson leads the way at .431, (31-for-72) followed by Johnson at .403 (29-of-72) and Angley (.394, 41-for-104). The record for 3-point percentage for a season is .454, set by Steve Nash in 1994-95. As a team, SCU is shooting .380 from beyond the arc. The season record at Santa Clara is .390, set in 1994-95.

Angley Assists
Senior point guard Brody Angley had 119 assists last season, giving him 342 career assists coming into this season. With 131 assists in the first 24 games he has now passed Kyle Bailey (2001-05) for fourth all-time and has 473 career assists. Next on the list is Eddie Joe Chavez (1974-78), who had 482 assists.

Angley Threes
Brody Angley has made 115 three pointers on 327 attempts in his Santa Clara career. Both of those numbers place him eighth all-time in program history. Brandon Rohe (2003-07) is next on the list for threes made with 119.

Angley More Top 10s
Brody Angley also finds himself in the Top 10 all-time in steals at SCU with 156. He passed Steve Nash (1992-96) for fifth all-time with a steal on Jan. 7. Next on the list is John Woolery (1990-94) with 192. Along with steals, Angley now finds himself in the Top 10 all-time in games started as well. After starting against Pepperdine, the Redding, Calif. native, now has 104 starts. He passed Dan Weiss (1984-88) for third all-time. Angley has an opportunity to end his career second all-time if he starts 28 games this season. The all-time leader is Brian Jones (1996-01) with 116 starts. Kurt Rambis (1976-80) is second with 107. Angley has now also reached the Top 10 in minutes played as well with 3,447 all-time. That number places him fifth on Santa Clara's all-time list.

Bryant Moving Up
Center John Bryant blocked 49 shots last season, surpassing his 37 from the 2005-06 season. Bryant's 49 blocks were the third highest single season total in school history. He surpassed Jens Gordon (1987-88), who had 48. After 55 blocks in the first 24 games this year, Bryant now has 141 career blocks, moving him past Jens Gordon (1985-89) into second all-time in blocks. Nick Vanos (1981-85) is first with 159 blocks. He needs two more blocks this year to reach 57 for the season and tie Vanos for the second most single season blocks in program history.

The Century Mark
Senior Brody Angley has now appeared in 115 games in his career at Santa Clara after starting against Pepperdine on Feb. 16. He is tied for 10th all-time in appearances. The school's all-time record of 127 is held by Kyle Bailey (2001-05.) Fellow senior Mitch Henke also reached 100 games played after starting against Niagara in the Cable Car Classic and has now appeared in 110 in his career.