Dec. 8, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After five straight days of filling bluebooks with multiple-choice, short-answer and essay questions while racing a running clock, the Santa Clara women's basketball team will have plenty of pent-up energy to spend this Saturday afternoon as they welcome the University of Hawaii to the Leavey Center for a 2 p.m. tip-off.

Tickets are on sale by calling 408/554-4660 or by clicking here. Live coverage of the game will be provided over the Internet via Broncos All-Access. Live Gametracker coverage will also be available on SantaClaraBroncos.com.

The Broncos (2-4) are coming off of a week which saw them go 2-1, including dominant double-digit wins over Central Florida last Monday and UC Irvine on Sunday. Michelle Cozad averaged 22.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game last week and earned WCC Player of the Week honors for her efforts. Cozad currently leads the WCC with a 21.0 scoring average and with 22 three-pointers made.

As a team, Santa Clara sits atop eight offensive categories among its conference rivals. Some of those categories include points per game (82.3), shooting percentage (48.3%), three-point accuracy (51.2%), free-throw percentage (76.0%), assists (110, 18.3 apg), and three-pointers made (65).

All kids ages 12-and-under receive free admission to SCU women's basketball this season. click here to download a special coupon!

Three Broncos, Chandice Cronk, Ashley Graham and Kayla Huss, are tied for third in the conference with 19 assists and a 3.2 per-game average. Graham is averaging 11.3 points a game and is shooting 53.3% from behind the arc while Cronk is averaging 11.0 points a game and 1.6 steals a game, good for seventh in the conference. Huss adds 7.5 points a game and is another Bronco shooting over 50% from three-point land, converting 9-of-17 attempts.

"As I tell the team, `we do not have control of how we are going to shoot the ball from night to night,'" said head coach Michelle Bento-Jackson. "It is definitely a positive when we end the game with a high number of assists because we will create more challenges for the opponents if we share the ball. However, we do need to focus on taking better care of the ball and being consistent with our decision-making. Our priority and focus is on our defense."

The defense will face another test Saturday against the Rainbow Wahine (3-2). Hawaii will be making its first non-conference trip to California since the 1993-94 season as they will face off against San Francisco Thursday night before coming to the Leavey Center over the weekend.

Hawaii is coming off of a third-place finish in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu two weeks ago. They defeated Washington State 68-63 in the opening round before dropping the next contest, 77-67 to Wisconsin. But Hawaii bounced back with a 68-66 come-from-behind win over Texas A&M in the tournament's third-place game.

The Rainbow Wahine are led by guard Amy Sanders, averaging 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds a game, and the inside duo of Brittany Grice and Tanya Smith. Both players are averaging just over 10 points and 6.8 rebounds a game, with Grice having nine blocks in five games.

"Hawaii is a very good ball team," Bento-Jackson noted about the Rainbow Wahine. "They have great balance with their inside and outside game and we know that our defense must be efficient in order for us to have success. They have had a lot of close games thus far this year and we expect a battle."

Saturday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 2 p.m. Tickets are available by calling (408) 554-4660.