Broncos shock Bulldogs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Suddenly, there is a chance the West Coast Conference will not be sending its best women’s basketball team to the NCAA Tournament.
And the league has Santa Clara to thank for all of the uncertainty.
The third-seeded Broncos, taking advantage of the familiar surroundings and friendly rims in Leavey Center, knocked the regular-season champion and top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs on their heels with some sensational long-range shooting Sunday afternoon and then hung on to shock the 23rd-ranked Zags 77-66 in the finals of the WCC tournament.
Santa Clara’s upset victory – which was even more decisive than the final score indicated – snapped GU’s nation-best 23-game winning streak, earned the Broncos an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament and left the Bulldogs’ post-season fate in limbo.
Zags coach Kelly Graves said he hadn’t thought much about his team’s chances of earning an at-large berth to this year’s NCAAs.
“Because we fully intended on winning this tournament,” he explained.
But now he and his players must wait until next Sunday to see if the NCAA’s selection committee considers their resume – which includes a 27-3 overall record, a perfect 14-0 run through their conference schedule and quality wins over Utah and Montana – worthy of an invitation.
The Zags could have washed away what promises to be an angst-filled week of waiting by knocking off SCU (17-13) for a third time this season. But the Broncos were having none of that.
Behind a barrage of 14 3-pointers that equaled the WCC tournament single-game record, Santa Clara broke a 13-13 tie midway through the first half to take a 46-32 halftime lead, and then extended their advantage to 71-48 with just over seven minutes left in the game.
Only a late 14-point run by the Zags made the final score respectable.
“They deserved it today,” Graves said of the Broncos, who made 14 of 26 3-pointers, including seven in a row during one five-minute stretch in the first half. “I thought they outplayed us in every phase, especially when it counted.
“One thing we’ve lived by all year is great defense. I don’t think we’ve allowed 70 points to any conference team, and these guys today just came out and put it all together.”
Junior guard and tournament MVP Michelle Cozad paced Santa Clara with 22 points, making 4 of her 5 attempts from 3-point range, and sophomore reserved Ashley Graham added 17 points on 4-for-6 shooting from 3-point range as the Broncos set a new tournament record by making 30 3-pointers in their three games.
But it was the seven consecutive 3s they made in the first half that had the biggest impact.
“It kind of snowballed,” Graves explained. “Give them credit, they made everything – and it wasn’t just one player. It was four or five players.
“I’ve got players that can’t make seven layups in a row in warm-ups, and to make seven 3s … just hats off to them.”
SCU coach Michelle Bento-Jackson, whose Broncos lost to the Bulldogs 85-50 and 66-61 during the regular season, opened her post-game news conference with “Wow!”
“I give all the credit in the world to the 14 players on our team,” she added. “I’m just so proud of the effort they put out and their stick-to-itiveness and refuse-to-lose attitude. I thought they carried that through for 40 minutes.”
The loss was GU’s first since falling to Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., back on Dec. 4.
“I forgot how it feels to lose,” Graves said. “That was a long time ago. But now I know why I didn’t like it.”
Graves said his defensive game plan – just at it had been in the first two meetings – was built around SCU’s ability to shoot the 3.
“We wanted to stay at home. We didn’t want to help,” he said. “But at times our nature is to always help on dribble penetration, so a few times we got burned on that.”
And in several instances, it wasn’t the initial penetration and kick that freed up Broncos shooters.
“It was penetration and kick, and then kick it once more and swing it once more,” Graves added. “It was that third shooter that usually did us in.”
And in the end, neither the blue-collar inside work of senior forward Ashley Burke, who finished with a game-high 28 points and eight rebounds, nor the inspiration of senior point guard Shannon Mathews, who played 18 painful minutes on a tender ankle she sprained severely in Saturday’s semifinal win over Pepperdine, was enough for the Bulldogs to lock up their first NCAA berth.
So the agonizing NCAA wait begins – but with a great deal of hope, it would seem.
“I’d hate to think that a team with 27 wins can’t get in,” Graves said.
Santa Clara 77, Gonzaga 66
Gonzaga (27-3)–Burke 8-13 12-13 28, Hawk 3-4 2-2 8, Kane 0-1 0-0 0, Laney 0-1 0-0 0, Renius 0-0 0-0 0, Harris 1-2 1-2 3, Mathews 2-4 0-0 6, Redenour 1-6 0-0 2, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Jewell 3-14 1-1 7, Prichard 0-0 0-0 0, Bailey 4-10 4-4 12, Lecoultre 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-57 20-22 66.
Santa Clara (17-13)–Gonnerman 1-8 2-3 4, Cronk 0-2 0-0 0, Thomas 5-11 0-0 14, Kimyacioglu 0-0 0-0 0, Huss 2-3 2-2 6, Cozad 6-12 6-6 22, Walker 3-9 0-0 7, Graham 5-7 3-3 17, Markey 2-2 0-0 4, Martin 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 25-55 13-14 77.
Halftime–Santa Clara 46, Gonzaga 32. 3-point goals–Gonzaga 2-15 (Mathews 2-4, Kane 0-1, Harris 0-1, Ridenour 0-1, Anderson 0-1, Bailey 0-1, Jewell 0-6), Santa Clara 14-26 (Cozad 4-5, Graham 4-6, Thomas 4-9, Martin 1-1, Walker 1-2, Huss 0-1, Cronk 0-2). Fouled out–Markey. Rebounds–Gonzaga 35 (Burke 8), Santa Clara 33 (Gonnerman, Thomas, Markey 6). Assists–Gonzaga 11 (Burke, Hawk, Kane, Laney 2), Santa Clara 17 (Cozad 6). Total fouls–Gonzaga 14, Santa Clara 19. A–1,145.