Web update: Men's basketball shines on senior night

By Ryan Donough

Santa Clara sent the seniors off in style with a blowout win over the San Francisco Dons 87-55. The highlight of the game was 7 foot, 270 pound senior center Josh Higgins's three pointer just one minute into the game, the only in his career at Santa Clara. Head Coach Kerry Keating knew Higgins could hit one and drew it up for him.

"Josh can shoot threes and since it was senior night we gave him a shot," Keating said.

However, before Higgins had the opportunity to attempt his three, he had to pass a test during practice. Higgins had to hit 100 threes within 10 minutes in order to even get the chance to shoot a three during the game

"I've done it once before but I was only able to get to about 72 I think," Higgins said.

Higgins remembered doing the same thing on his high school senior night when he hit two threes.

With Higgins help, Santa Clara improved to 6-6 in the conference and 14-13 overall with the victory and are one win away from clinching a first round bye in the West Coast Conference Championships by securing fourth place in the WCC. The loss dropped San Francisco to 3-9 in the conference and 7-20 overall, leaving future hall of fame coach Eddie Sutton at 801 career wins.

Santa Clara started four seniors for the game including Brody Angley, Mitch Henke, Okechukwu Mbango and Josh Higgins. Keating was pleased with all of them, especially, Mbango and Higgins.

"I'm proud of the seniors tonight," Keating said. "Oke and Josh played well the whole game."

The four seniors contributed a total of 30 points in the game and were given a standing ovation when Keating took them out with just over two minutes left in the game.

However, the leading scorer for the Broncos was freshman guard Ben Dowdell who scored 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting including a perfect 4 for 4 from the line and a rare three, only his second of the season.

Angley didn't shoot the ball much but was able to find his teammates and lead the Broncos with 10 assists while junior center John Bryant pulled down 11 rebounds.

Santa Clara controlled every aspect of the game shooting 62 percent from the field while holding the Dons to only 36 percent. The Broncos also forced 18 turnovers, which Santa Clara turned into 23 points.

Santa Clara will head to the northwest for the final two games of the regular season against Portland on Saturday and Gonzaga on Monday.