SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's basketball got back in the win column with an 82-60 victory at UC Santa Barbara Friday night, highlighted by the ninth 20-point game of Ashlyn Herlihy' career.

The redshirt senior led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and also led all players with seven rebounds. 

"Ashlyn played really well tonight," Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr said. "She had opportunities inside and out and really led the charge. It became pretty contagious."

Ashlee Maldonado added a career high 11 points and also set a career high with seven assists. Shayley Harris also set a career high with eight points and pulled down four rebounds with Lindsey VanAllen adding 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

As a team, Santa Clara shot 47.7-percent from the field and went 9-for-23 from beyond the arc.

"Today was a really good team win," Carr said. "We showed a lot of energy as a group and shared the ball pretty well. It was nice to see some rhythm. We also got a lot of contributions off the bench and showed some really good balance."

The Broncos (2-2) put the game away late in the third quarter with a 15-2 run, led by Herlihy and Merle Wiehl. Herlihy scored six points, including a 3-pointer, with Wiehl scoring six of her eight, including four free throws, to give Santa Clara a 60-41 lead with 33 seconds left in the third.

Early in the second quarter the Broncos scored 10 in a row to get on top by double figures for the first time. Ashley Hiraki's triple with 4:54 left in the opening half capped the run and made it 26-14.

The Gauchos (0-3) responded with seven points in a row, however, led by five points from Doris Jones, to get back within 26-21 at the 2:39 mark. They would never get the deficit lower.

Jones finished with a team high 16 and six rebounds with Mira Shulman also cracking double digits with 11 points. Danae Miller dished out six assists to go with eight points. 

The Broncos got going early with a 9-0 run in under two minutes midway through the first quarter to take an 11-4 lead that would last the rest of the game. They also finished strong, with an 8-0 run in the fourth, this one led by Harris' four points to take 72-50 lead with 5:28 remaining in the game.

NOTES

• Santa Clara is now 7-5 all-time against UC Santa Barbara.
• Ashlee Maldonado and Danja Stafford made their first starts.
• Lara Edmanson made her Santa Clara debut.

UP NEXT
The Broncos and Gauchos play at 5 p.m. on again Saturday.

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