Women Fall in San Francisco

Basketball loses to conference foe on the road Saturday

Claire McLoughlinTHE SANTA CLARAJanuary 22, 2014

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]anta Clara dominated the boards and edged the University of San Francisco Dons in second chance points during their game on Saturday, but were unable to come out with a win.

Despite hanging with the Dons for the majority of the game, the Broncos were unable to suppress a late run by USF and fell 62-45.

This brings the Broncos’ record to 1-6 in the West Coast Conference and 6-10 in the season.

Toughness in the paint was a big factor in the Broncos keeping the game within reach.

Seniors Vanessa Leo and Nici Gilday battled against the USF defense, with center Leo picking up her second double-double of the season (13 points, 12 rebounds) while guard Gilday grabbed seven rebounds and scored nine points.

Sophomore forward Marie Bertholdt put up seven points and wrestled away three rebounds from the Dons as well.

Even though Leo had a big night, she admitted there were a couple tactics the entire team could have used differently to achieve a better result.

“USF was able to expose our lack of defensive effort,” she said. “USF is a team that loves to attack the rim and we allowed them to aggressively take us off the bounce, exposing our slower close outs.” 

The Broncos are now a little over halfway through their season. 

“We want to be the most disciplined, hardest working and toughest team in our conference,” Gilday said. “If we stick to those three things in the second half of conference we will be just fine.”

Leo shared similar observations.

“As a team, we are still focusing on our same fundamentals and striving to be the hardest-working team in the league,” she said. “Our approach will include these same goals along with better execution, more efficient shots and winning the rebounding game.” 

Leo, a senior who stands to face USF for the last time in her career, is looking forward to a rematch.

“With better energy, execution and focus, the outcome would have been much better for us,” she said. “We know what we need to work on and will come out next time with more urgency and aggressiveness.”

The Broncos have a tough week ahead of them. They travel south to face the Lions of Loyola Marymount University today and continue down the coast to play the Pepperdine University Waves on Saturday.

The Broncos have traded wins with LMU and Pepperdine for several years so both games will be huge in terms of how the conference shakes out towards WCC playoff time.

Contact Claire McLoughlin at camcloughlin@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.