SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's basketball sent its seniors out with a bang in a 106-68, record setting win over Portland Saturday afternoon in Leavey Center.
The Broncos (12-15, 5-11 WCC) dominated from the start and set program records for assists in a game with 32, led by 13 from Tia Hay, and points in a half at home with 68 in the first. It was also the second most points scored against a Division I opponent.
The previous high for assists was 29 vs. LMU on Jan 28, 2000 and vs. Harvard Nov. 24, 1989. The previous high in a half in Leavey Center was 62 points against Eastern Washington Nov. 29, 1997. The only game against a Division I opponent with more points was 111 in the game against Eastern Washington.
As a team, Santa Clara shot 50.6-percent from the field and buried a season-high 14 3-pointers, tied for the fourth most in a game in program history.
"It was really nice to see how well we shared the ball and it became contagious," Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr said. "Tia obviously led us in the department and got us going by making good decisions. We also made the extra pass which made it hard for them to guard us."
Lindsey VanAllen scored a game-high 22 on 8-for-13 shooting and was 4-for-6 from downtown. Emily Wolph scored 19 points, including 16 in the first quarter, on 7-for-9 shooting and 5-for-7 from beyond the arc with Lauren Yearwood adding 13 points and eight rebounds.
Hay tied for the fourth most assists in a game in program history, including 11 in the first half with Ashlyn Herlihy scoring 11 points.
Senior Dru Toleafoa also had a big day, scoring five points with nine rebounds and six assists and fellow senior Charise Holloway scored seven with a career-high seven steals and five rebounds. Tamia Braggs also contributed nine points in 11 minutes.
All 11 players that saw minutes scored with 10 making a field goal.
"It was nice that everybody got to contribute today," Carr said.
On the defensive end, Santa Clara forced 24 turnovers that turned into 29 points.
"I thought we were as good as we've been in a while defensively, just from a game plan standpoint and an activity standpoint," Carr said. "We were guarding with our knees bent, had quite a few deflections, and took them out of some things they wanted to do by rushing them a little bit."
The Pilots (12-15, 4-12 WCC) did manage to knock down 12 3-pointers on 24 attempts and went 16-for-20 from the free throw line.
Julie Spencer led the team with 14 points and seven rebounds. Jayce Gorzeman, Haylee Andrews, and Josie Matz all scored eight.
The Broncos took the lead in the first quarter with a 21-4 over three minutes and never looked back. Wolph knocked down a trio of triples and scored 11 points during the run, with her third 3-pointer at 3:09 making it 21-7.
HIGHLIGHTS | Kept it �� and set a program record for assists in today's victory over Portland! #StampedeTogether #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/78CJD2Yf0U
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) February 24, 2019
NOTES
- Santa Clara is now 45-30 all-time against Portland.
- With two blocks, Lauren Yearwood now has 71 on the year, good for second on the Santa Clara single-season list and No. 8 on the career list. She is five blocks away from setting the single season Bronco record.
- The Broncos used the same starting lineup (Hay, Wolph, Jimenez, Herlihy, Yearwood) for the ninth consecutive game.
- Santa Clara was without Joeseta Fatuesi who sat with an injury.
UP NEXT
Santa Clara heads on the road to play at San Diego Thursday at 6 p.m.
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