Basketball season tips off Friday: Women's

By Gabe Taylor

The Santa Clara women's basketball team will open the season on the road Friday night when they take on Cal State Fullerton.

After the Broncos' 60-42 victory over the Melbourne Roos in an exhibition game on Nov. 11, Head Coach Jennifer Mountain was happy, but still thought Santa Clara could have played better. The game was Mountain's debut as the Broncos' head coach.

"I would say the first 10 minutes, we were pretty sharp," Mountain said. "The last 30 minutes, we kind of played to their level and were a little sloppy."

Santa Clara's defense held the Roos to just four points through the first 12 minutes of the game at the Leavey Center.

"I think our team learned that we have to play consistent defense for 40 minutes in order to win ball games," Mountain said. "We just kind of lost focus on what we were doing."

Sophomore transfer student Lena Gipson, who also made her Santa Clara debut at the game, scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Redshirt freshman Becky Goll added 13 points with a 6-for-10 record when shooting from the field.

Although the Broncos controlled the game for most of the first half, the Roos did show sparks of life as they closed out the first half on a 14-6 run to head into half time trailing only 32-20.

The second half began with lackadaisical play from both teams. A total of four points were scored between the two teams in the first 5 minutes.

Gipson admitted that the Broncos' level of play dipped in the second half.

"We have to play our own game," Gipson said. "We can't let another team dictate whether or not we're going to play hard."

The game's pace could not be established because of turnovers. There were 33 turnovers between the two teams in the second half alone.

Melbourne finished with 32 to Santa Clara's 23 turnovers.

The Broncos will need to cut down on mental mistakes like this if they want to come out victorious against Fullerton on Friday.

Santa Clara's home opener is on Sunday at 2 p.m., when they play Minnesota.

Contact Gabe Taylor at gtaylor@scu.edu.