LAS VEGAS — The Santa Clara University women's basketball team heads to Las Vegas this week for the 2023 University Credit Union West Coast Conference Basketball Tournament. The Broncos finished the regular season as the No. 8 seed and will play in Thursday's first round vs. No. 9 Pepperdine at noon.

THE MATCHUPS

#8 Santa Clara (15-16, 6-12 WCC) vs. #9 Pepperdine (10-18, 5-13 WCC)
* #8 Santa Clara (15-16, 6-12 WCC) vs. #5 BYU (14-15, 9-9 WCC)
* if advancing to the second round

GAME INFO

When: Thursday, March 2 • Noon
Where: Las Vegas (Orleans Arena)
Video: WCC Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Game Notes: Santa Clara | Pepperdine

When: Friday, March 3 • Noon
Where: Las Vegas (Orleans Arena)
Video: WCC Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Game Notes: Santa Clara | BYU

SERIES HISTORY

Santa Clara is 44-43 all-time against Pacific, including 2-7 in the WCC Tournament. The last meeting was a 74-59 Pepperdine win in Malibu, Calif., on Feb. 25, 2023.
Santa Clara is 3-25 all-time against BYU, including 0-1 in the WCC Tournament. The last meeting was a 78-72 BYU win in Santa Clara on Feb. 16, 2023.

LAST TIME OUT

Using its two six-foot forwards down low, Pepperdine shut down the Broncos' offense to win both teams' regular season finale Saturday, 62-46, at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Pepperdine was on point on both ends of the court. It scored more points (74) than it has in nearly two months and its fifth-most points of the year. On defense, the Waves held the Broncos – the second-highest scoring offense in the WCC – to their lowest points total of the season (59), and their lowest shooting percentage (33.9%).

Santa Clara had three players score in double figures for the third straight game. Olivia Pollerd hit three 3s and scored a team-high 16 points. Ashlee Maldonado was a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point land and scored 14 points with six assists. Lara Edmanson also scored 14 with a team-high five rebounds.

SCOUTING REPORT: PEPPERDINE

The Waves (10-18, 5-13 WCC) won twice at home to finish the regular season last week and have won three of their last five games - all against teams above them in the standings. They went 1-1 in their only neutral site competition this season, splitting at the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage in November. 

NOTES

• Tess Heal became the program's first WCC major individual award winner in 17 years Wednesday when the annual all-conference awards were announced, being named the 2022-23 WCC Newcomer of the Year on top of a host of other accolades.
• Heal earned the conference's Newcomer of the Year award after setting a record with 12 WCC Freshman of the Week honors during the season. The WCC doesn't have a Freshman of the Year award. She also landed on the all-WCC first team, and was named to the WCC all-freshman team. Classmate Marya Hudgins was also named to the WCC all-freshman team.
• A number of Broncos are within reach of - or have already reached - several all-time program top-10 lists for a single season :: - Lara Edmanson – 55.3% FG%, t-5th (.7 from 4th)
  - Tess Heal – 134 made FTs, 5th (2 away from 4th)
  - Tess Heal – 533 points, 8th (5 away from 7th)
  - Tess Heal – 17.2 ppg (currently ranked 10th)
  - Olivia Pollerd – 38 blocks, t-9th (2 away from 8th)
  - Ashley Hiraki – 59 steals (9 away from 10th)
  - Tess Heal – 127 assists (4 away from 10th)
• Pepperdine is the best rebounding team in the WCC at 40.8 boards per game. Its length also helps it on defense with 3.5 blocks per game - second in the WCC. The Waves struggle to hold onto the ball though, averaging 18.1 turnovers a game (worst in the WCC). They also struggle at the free-throw line, shooting a WCC-worst 69.1%. They defend the 3-point line well, limiting opponents to 30.5% (2nd in WCC), but they don't make many themselves (4.6 per game).
• Olivia Pollerd's career-high 20 points on Feb. 9 were just one sign of her recent hot streak on both ends of the court. She hit four 3-pointers that night, and has hit at least two treys in nine of her last 10 games. She's sank 23 3-pointers in her last 10 games. She's had multiple blocks in four of her last eight games and 15 total, averaging 1.9 rejections per game over that span.
• So far this season, as long as Santa Clara keeps its opponent under 70 points, it wins. The Broncos are 13-1 in 2022-23 when allowing 69 or less points. And they've outscored their opponents by an average of 20.9 points in those 13 wins.
• Santa Clara head coach Bill Carr is four wins away from his 300th career victory and six wins from his 100th as the head coach of the Santa Clara women's program. Carr spent 11 years from 1999-2016 as the head coach of three different NAIA and NCAA Division II men's basketball programs, amassing 202 wins along the way. He's won 96 games at Santa Clara, surpassing his highest total at any of his men's coaching stops (84 at Spring Hill College, 1999-2002).
  
  Carr, the eighth head coach in program history, is the fourth-winningest head coach of all-time for Broncos women's basketball. He trails No. 3 Ken Thompson, who coached SCU from 1978-88 and collected 112 victories.
• Another strong string of performances before Christmas brought more accolades for Santa Clara freshman guard Tess Heal, as she was named both the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week, and earned her fifth WCC Freshman of the Week award for the week of Dec. 12-19.
  
  Heal averaged 17.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 3.7 rebounds in three games from Dec. 12-19 (the USBWA award was based on Heal's two games from Dec. 12-18) while shooting 55.6% to help lead Santa Clara to a 2-1 week and a 1-1 start in WCC play. Heal was the Broncos' leading scorer in all three games during the week and was the game-high scorer twice.
• Tess Heal has been one of the most prolific scoring freshmen in the country this season. Heal owns the highest point total in the WCC with 533 points -- 34th-most in the nation (through Tuesday). Her 17.2 ppg rank fifth among all freshmen in the country. She's also distributed the ball when she's not scoring it, with her 4.1 assists per game tied for fifth among the nation's freshmen. The 39 points she scored against BYU on Feb. 16 rank as 23rd-most by any player in the nation this season, and were the most by a WCC player in more than four years.
• Santa Clara's Feb. 2nd win over No. 17/18 Gonzaga was its first win over the Bulldogs since beating them, 59-58, in the 2016 WCC Tournament in Las Vegas on March 3, 2016. It snapped what had been a 13-game winning streak in the series for Gonzaga. It was also the first time the Broncos defeated a nationally ranked opponent (AP Poll) since beating No. 15 Stanford on Nov. 23, 2015.
• Santa Clara entered this season having gone 1-12 in its last 13 non-conference games played outside of California (not including the WCC Tournament), dating to Dec. 18, 2014. But they went 3-0 in 2022-23, going unbeaten at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic with wins over South Dakota (75-50) and Washington (71-58), then beating Nevada on Dec. 11, 66-56.
• Santa Clara had never beat BYU in Provo entering their Jan. 21st matchup, going 0-12 there since 2006-07. But they reversed those fortunes with a 10-point, 69-59 win. It was the Broncos' third win over the Cougars in a series that dates to 1998-99. The 10-point triumph was Santa Clara's second-largest win over BYU, having beaten them by 12 in their first meeting, 76-64 on Dec. 5, 1998, in Santa Clara.
• The Broncos were a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line on Jan. 12 against Saint Mary's. It's only the 13th time in program history they've been a perfect 100% from the free-throw line (minimum five attempts). It's only the fifth time in program history they've made at least 10 free throws without missing. At 12 for 12, it's the fourth-most free throws they've ever made on a perfect night, and the most since they went a school-record perfect 20-for-20 against LMU on Feb. 16, 2021.
• The Broncos made waves on Nov. 30 even in defeat with a spectacular effort against the No. 2 team in the country, as they drove up El Camino Real to revive a series versus 2021 national champion Stanford that hadn't been played for seven years. The Cardinal won, 82-69, but Santa Clara scored the second-most points allowed by the Cardinal this season, hit the most 3-pointers Stanford has allowed (13) and held the No. 2 team in the country to its worst 3-point shooting percentage (27.3%) of the year. The 13-point margin of victory was Stanford's smallest in nine wins, more than 10 points smaller than the next smallest victory margin (24).
• Tess Heal played with the Australia U18 Women's National Team in India during early September at the FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship. She helped the Gems not only qualify for the 2023 FIBA U19 Women's World Cup, but was also part of the team's first-ever championship at the event, as the Gems went undefeated to hoist the trophy.
• Santa Clara defeated Washington, 71-58, on Nov. 26 to conclude the Las Vegas Holiday Classic with a perfect 2-0 record. It was the Broncos' first win over the Huskies in 21 years almost to the day and by almost the exact same score. The Broncos last beat UW on Nov. 24, 2001, in Seattle, 71-56. It was Santa Clara's first win over a Pac-12 Conference member since Nov. 23, 2015, when it beat Stanford on the road, 61-58.
  
  The Broncos also beat 2022 Sweet 16 team South Dakota on the trip. Their unblemished trip to Las Vegas marked the first time they went unbeaten in a non-conference tournament in seven years. They last went 2-0 at Cal Poly's 2015 ShareSLO Holiday Tournament in San Luis Obispo on Nov. 27-28, 2015.
• Santa Clara posted its second consecutive winning season in 2021-22 – the first time the Broncos had logged consecutive winning campaigns in 16 years. The Broncos have won at least 12 games in five of head coach Bill Carr's six years at the helm. They'll be looking to log their third straight winning season in 2022-23 for the first time in 20 years – since the program wrapped up a run of 13 straight winning years in 2002-03.
  
  The Broncos' regular season success has also shown through in the postseason the last two years. Santa Clara reached the WCC Tournament quarterfinals in 2022 with back-to-back wins in the first and second rounds. That came a year after they reached the semifinals in 2021.
• Santa Clara's 2022-23 roster features eight players who haven't played for the Broncos in at least a year – that includes six newcomers who have never donned an SCU jersey, and returners Ashlee Maldonado and Lexie Pritchard, who are both returning from season-long injuries.
• Santa Clara's six newcomers include three freshmen and three transfers. The trio of transfers feature redshirt senior guard Azhiana Basallo, a San Francisco native who comes to the South Bay from Arizona State via San Jose State and Cal Poly, sophomore forward Olivia Pollerd from Washington of the Pac-12 Conference, and junior guard Jayde Cadee out of UC Irvine. The rookies include 6-foot, 3-inch forward Georgia Grigiripoulou from Athens, Greece, 5-10 guard Tess Heal out of Melbourne, Australia, and 6-0 guard Marya Hudgins from Aurora, Colo.

TICKET INFORMATION

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