Men's basketball splits weekend homestand

By Jack Ferdon

Just two days after losing 84-69 to conference heavyweight Gonzaga - now up to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll - Santa Clara got to recover by beating up on another conference foe, Portland, by a score of 75-58.

The Broncos' record in league now stands at 5-5, which is good enough for fourth place behind Pepperdine (10-0), Gonzaga (9-1) and San Francisco (7-3).

"Hopefully, we can get to 9-5, and if not that, then 8-6," Head Coach Dick Davey told the Mercury News.

Santa Clara will have to get it done against USF and St. Mary's this week at Leavey and against LMU and Pepperdine next week in Los Angeles.

If their play in last week's games is any indication, then Santa Clara is up to the task.

Thursday night, the Broncos gave the 4,712 who packed Leavey their money's worth. Despite what the final score might suggest, Santa Clara gave the Gonzaga all they could handle and were in the game until late.

Senior Justin Holbrook's three-pointer midway through the second half capped a 21-12 Bronco run that cut Gonzaga's lead from 14 to five. Holbrook had another three during the spurt, but the star of the run was sophomore Kyle Bailey. The guard had 13 of his game-high 30 points during the 7:16 span, including three 3-pointers. But the Bulldogs would pull away the rest of the game behind the 3-point shooting of guards Dan Dickau and Blake Stepp.

"We didn't do a good enough job at certain aspects of the game," Santa Clara's leading scorer Steve Ross said, who was shut down by Gonzaga and scored only eight points on 2-9 shooting.

One such aspect was interior defense. The Zags built a big lead in the first half by attacking Santa Clara's big men with forward Zach Gourde, who finished with 16 points on eight of 11 shooting. Gonzaga center Cory Violette also scored with ease, compiling 14 points while missing only one of six shots.

After facing the Bulldogs (22-3 overall), the Broncos must have felt like they were racing without restrictor plates against Portland (5-19). Santa Clara used their size advantage to dominate the boards, grabbing 52 to the Pilots' 33, and limit Portland to 33 percent shooting from the floor.

Senior center David Emslie, getting his first extended playing time since recovering from an injury, had nine boards to go with eight points.

"Having Dave [Emslie] back there helps because they're not used to having to shoot over a 7-footer," Ross said.

Santa Clara can expect more of a challenge at Leavey tonight when they face USF, with the third place seed in the WCC tourney on the line.