SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A torrent fourth-quarter comeback, a barely-missed game-winning shot, multiple milestones and an extra overtime period turned Saturday's clash between San Diego and the Santa Clara University women's basketball team into a thriller.
Oh, and it was Senior Day, when the Broncos recognized five student-athletes in a pregame ceremony before the team's final home game of the 2022-23 season. Santa Clara also honored the legacy of Broncos women's athletics pioneer Marygrace Colburn, the department's first director of women's athletics who's career on the Mission Campus spanned four decades.
So, Saturday was quite a day.
In the end, San Diego held off a hard-charging Santa Clara team to earn a 69-62 overtime West Coast Conference win at Leavey Center.
Listen in on head @coachbillcarr's postgame comments from today's overtime clash vs. San Diego ��️#StampedeTogether | #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/dWr0nOKt0J
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) February 19, 2023
Santa Clara (14-15, 5-11 WCC) trailed the Toreros (16-11, 10-6 WCC) by as many as 11 late in the third quarter, but it went on a massive 19-2 run that flipped the score to a six-point lead at 52-46 with 4 minutes, 17 seconds to play. Everything was working for the Broncos during the run: It hit 8 of 10 shots, held San Diego to just 9.1% shooting (1 for 11), outrebounded the Toreros, 8-1, and made 3 of 3 free throws.
An and-one three-point play for Tess Heal, part of her 17 points in the game, gave the Broncos their largest lead at seven, 57-50, with 2:34 left – but that's when San Diego came back alive while finally cooling off Santa Clara.
The Broncos wouldn't make another shot down the stretch, going 0 for 4 with a turnover in the last two minutes of regulation. Meanwhile, Myah Pace scored five points on her own with a fastbreak layup off an SCU turnover and a rare 3-pointer – only her seventh of the season – to make it two-point game with a minute left.
Ayanna Khalfani, who scored a team-high 20 points Saturday, sank a huge pull-up jumper from 15 feet away to tie the game at 57-57 with 6.4 seconds, and she was fouled coming back down, sending her to the line with a chance to put San Diego ahead. But she missed the free throw. And though the Toreros grabbed the offensive board, Ashley Hiraki came up with yet another clutch steal to give the Broncos a chance at a thrilling win.
With only 1.8 seconds on the clock, Santa Clara inbounded the ball and found Olivia Pollerd near the wing. Pollerd shot a turnaround, fadeaway jumper that hit off the back rim and came out as the buzzer sounded, sending the game to overtime.
Santa Clara's cold streak continued into the start of overtime, as it missed its first five shots. The Toreros made three layups and clutched up from the free-throw line when they needed it most. USD entered Saturday as the third-worst free-throw shooting team in the WCC, but it went a perfect 6-for-6 from the line in the game's final 30 seconds to hold off the Broncos.
Lara Edmanson scored a career-high 23 points Saturday, going 9 for 11 from the floor with a 3-pointer and shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. She scored six of Santa Clara's first eight points, as the Broncos got out to an early 8-6 lead. But San Diego went on an 8-0 run before the first quarter ended and would hold onto the lead the rest of the way, growing it to as large as 11 (44-33) in the third.
That was, until Santa Clara finally found its shooting stroke and went off in the fourth quarter.
Q4, 6:10 #Broncos 46, @USDwbb 46
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) February 18, 2023
Edmanson ties the game!
NEW season & career high for Edmanson 2️⃣3️⃣ points ! #StampedeTogether | #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/zbuzzQtE5l
Heal finished with 17 points, five assists and three rebounds. She surpassed the 500-point mark for the season and now has 511 points on the year – which ranks 10th all-time in a single season at Santa Clara. She also hit seven free throws Saturday, giving her 121 for the year – good for 10th all-time in a single season.
Q4, 5:35 | #Broncos 48, @USDwbb 46
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) February 18, 2023
Freshman of the Week Tess Heal has scored 5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ points!
Broncos take the lead! #StampedeTogether | #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/1u16fPHjHX
Pollerd finished with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench. Hiraki did a little bit of everything with four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Ashlee Maldonado was one rebound short of tying a career high with six and also had two assists.
Khalfani was two rebounds short of a double-double with her 20 points alongside eight boards. Kasey Neubert scored 18 and had seven rebounds for San Diego, while Pace finished with 13 and six.
Santa Clara wraps up the regular season next week on the road in Southern California. They'll face LMU at 7 p.m. Thursday, then take on Pepperdine in Malibu at 2 p.m. Saturday. Fans can find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.
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