SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Twentieth-ranked Gonzaga was too much for Santa Clara women's basketball in a 71-52 defeat Thursday night.
The Bulldogs (11-2, 6-0 WCC) got off to a red hot start, hitting their first five shots and going 12-of-14 in the first quarter to build a 27-10 lead after 10 minutes. They used runs of 8-0 and 7-0 during the period with Jill Townsend scoring nine in the quarter.
Townsend finished with a game high-tying 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor. Jenn Wirth added 15 and was 7-of-10 from the floor. As a team, Gonzaga finished the night at 58.8-percent from the field and was 7-of-13 from downtown.
After the hot start, the Broncos (7-5, 2-2 WCC) managed to play the Bulldogs even, outscoring them by two points in both the second and third quarters and used a 7-0 run to get their deficit down to 52-42 at 9:19 in the fourth, when Ashlyn Herlihy hit a 3-pointer.
"We were moving better and guarding a little better," Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr said of the second and third quarters. "We were getting some stops. We can't run unless we get stops and when you're taking it out of the net, it really slows you down. We have to make sure we understand that."
Herlihy scored eight, all in the second half, including the 1,000th point of her career. She became just the 26th Bronco to accomplish the feat.
"What a great accomplishment," Carr said. "I'm really proud of her and the work she's done to get to that number. It's not an easy feat. If it was, a lot more people would have done it. The good news is she's not done. Hopefully she keeps crawling up the scoring ladder."
The Santa Clara offense was by Merle Wiehl however, who scored 20 on 9-of-10 shooting from the field. Wiehl scored the team's first 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting. Lindsey VanAllen, who added seven points, was the first Bronco to score other than Wiehl with a triple at 4:29 in the second quarter.
"Merle is coming in to her own and getting a rhythm offensively," Carr said. "We're getting her shots and she's figuring out where her shots are going to come. The good news is she's doing it around the basket, she's doing it from outside, she's doing it from midrange, and then getting fouled and doing it at the free throw line. She needs to keep doing that and we need to get a few more people to do that too every night."
As soon as the Broncos got within 10, Gonzaga responded with the next 14 points and a 19-2 run that put the game away. Kaylynne Truong scored all six of her points during the stretch on a pair of triples.
The Broncos managed to close the game with an 8-0 run over the final 2:41, featuring five points from Ashley Hiraki.
Check out the @HerculesTires Strong Plays of the Game from Thursday's action against Gonzaga!#StampedeTogether #SCUBroncos #WCCHoops pic.twitter.com/dF4jwgmJLP
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) January 16, 2021
��️ Hear from head coach Bill Carr on tonight's game against Gonzaga.
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) January 15, 2021
Postgame interview presented by @ROATweets.#StampedeTogether #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/yhUFp4vrvp
NOTES
- Santa Clara is now 29-43 all-time against Gonzaga.
- Herlihy's 1,000th points came on her layup at the 8:20 mark of the third quarter. It came in her 100th game.
- The Broncos heated up toward the end of the first half, hitting six of their final seven attempts from the field.
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