PORTLAND, Ore. – In a New Year's Eve showdown, Santa Clara women's basketball topped Portland 67-45 on Thursday afternoon to push its winning streak to 12 games.

The Broncos 12 game winning streak is tied for the longest in program history with a streak of the same length from Jan. 4-Feb. 9, 1991. That season Santa Clara won the WNIT.

The 12-2 start is also tied for the best start in team history with the 2001-02 season when Santa Clara went 21-10 and advanced to the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Broncos rattled off 13 consecutive points to end the first quarter and to begin the second to take the lead for good. Taylor Berry scored six of the points to lead the way and McGwire added a 3-pointer and a jumper. When the Pilots finally got back on the board after a six-minute drought, Santa Clara led 26-15.

Santa Clara (12-2, 3-0 WCC) dominated down low. The Broncos held a 38-17 advantage in rebounds and outscored Portland 17-2 in second chance points. They also scored 40 points in the paint to the Pilots' 14.

"All week long we have been talking about rebounding and we were able to dominate on the glass tonight," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "We want to win the rebound and toughness battle every night and our aggressiveness really showed today."

The Bronco defense forced 26 turnovers that led to 18 points and picked up 14 steals and increase their nation-leading total to 193.

Marie Bertholdt led all scorers with 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting and added five rebounds. Morgan McGwire scored 11 with a game-high six rebounds and Lori Parkinson chipped in 10 points.

A 10-0 run for the Broncos came at the start of the second half. Berry started the stretch with a jumper and 8:21 and McGwire finished it off with a layup at the 5:06 mark to make it 50-27.

Portland (2-12, 0-3 WCC) got 13 points from Ellie Woerner on 6 of 11 shooting from the field. No other Pilot scored more than seven and none had more than four rebounds. Courtney Van Loo picked up five assists.

The two teams traded buckets and Santa Clara was able to get the lead to a game-high 61-36 with 1:03 to go in the third and Portland never go the lead to under 20 the rest of the way.

Santa Clara returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. at Gonzaga.