DAVIS, Calif. – In the midst of a four-game road trip, the Santa Clara women's basketball team fell 70-59 at UC Davis. The loss puts the Broncos at 5-5 and brings UC Davis to 3-4. Santa Clara will next play at CSU Bakersfield on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. as it wraps-up its road trip prior to the Christmas holidays.

Santa Clara shot 30.1% (25-83) from the field and 26.1% (6-23) from beyond the arc. The Broncos continued to clean up on the glass by bringing down 49 rebounds and collected 18 assists to go along with 11 steals. Defensively Santa Clara forced 23 turnovers and held the Aggies to 34.4% (21-61) shooting.

Ricki Radanovich, who scored 15 points, and Nici Gilday, who had 12, led the Broncos on offense. Gilday and Lindsay Leo tied for a team-high nine rebounds each. Radanovich added five assists and two steals.  Sydnee Fipps of Davis scored a game-high 19 points.

"I think we didn't show up consistently to play for the first 35 minutes of the game," said Bronco head coach Jennifer Mountain. "We didn't hit shots and only shot 30 percent from the field. We didn't have people that competed. At times we played well but defensively we didn't get stops and we struggled to score. We had layups, we had four footers and then we sent them to the line 32 times. If you're doing that and you're shooting 30 percent from the field, you're in trouble."

The scoring started when Fipps of UC Davis knocked down two free throws to give the Aggies the lead.  Santa Clara didn't score its first points until four and a half minutes into the game. Leo took a pass from Radanovich and made a layup to even the score at 2-2.

After Davis took a 5-2 lead on a three by Fipps, Arteivia Lilomaiava made an inside shot while being fouled and knocked down the free throw to even the score.

The two teams traded baskets to push the score to 10-10 before the Broncos scored six unanswered points over 1:45 to take a 16-10 lead. The run was ended when Idit Oryon nailed a three pointer to cut Santa Clara's lead in half.

A layup by Alyson Doherty put the Aggies back by just one but Santa Clara was able to push the lead back out to 20-15 on a steal and a breakaway layup by Radanovich.

A layup by Ruta Zurauskyte put the Broncos up 22-18 but a free throw by Doherty and a three from Aniya Baker knotted the score at 22-22 with just under four minutes remaining in the half. 

Following the final media timeout of the first half, Davis went on a 12-2 run fuelled by three three pointers to end the half and take a 34-24 lead into halftime.

In the first half the Broncos shot 28.2% (11-39) from the field and just 1-7 from beyond the arc. Radanovich led the way for the Broncos with five points, three assists, two steals and one block.  The Aggies shot 35.5% (11-31) from the field and went an impressive 7-15 from three but were only 5-13 from the free throw line.

Radanovich opened the second half scoring with a three one and a half minutes in to cut the Aggie lead to seven.

UC Davis, however, came back with a 11-0 run over nearly five minutes to extend its lead to 45-27.

A layup by Molly Greubel at 3:54 left on the clock put the Aggies up 61-44 before Santa Clara went on a 11-1 run led by a trio of threes by Fulps.

With the scored now 62-55, the Broncos continued the pressure and cut the lead to five with 37 seconds remaining on a layup by Armstrong and a jumper by Gilday that made the score 64-59.

The Aggies were able to ice the game by knocking down six free throws and seal the 70-59 win.