Women falter on L.A. swing

By BRIAN ELSNER

The women's basketball team took a step back in their quest for another West Coast Conference title by losing both games on the road last weekend to Pepperdine 75-71 and Loyola Marymount 82-72. The losses dropped the Broncos' record to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in WCC play.Guards Taryn Reynolds and Bryn Britton of Loyola Marymount combined for 58 of the 82 points scored by the Lions in a searing-hot shooting performance on Saturday night at Gersten Pavilion. The Lions shot 50 percent for the game, including 7-of-14 from three-point land. "Our defense really let us down," sophomore Tammy Annas said. "We pretty much let them score whenever they wanted."

Santa Clara's offense did not fair too well either as the Broncos shot only 39 percent from the field. Annas did her best to keep Santa Clara close as she scored a career best 23 points on 10-of-15 from the field to go along with eight rebounds.

After trailing by 13 points at halftime, the Broncos opened the second half with a 25-11 run to take a one point lead on sophomore Becki Ashbaugh's driving lay-up. Yet in the end Reynolds carried the Lions to a double-digit victory with her career-high 30-point performance.

While Santa Clara shot over 57 percent from the field against Pepperdine on Friday night, poor defense and 24 turnovers resulted in Santa Clara's first WCC loss of the year. The turnover story is nothing new for the Broncos, who average 21.4 turnovers per game.

"We are really focusing on it in practice," junior Annie Garrison said. "We want to cut down on turnovers more and more each game."

Pepperdine led throughout the game and seemed to have a victory assured with a nine point lead and 4:28 to go in the contest. Ashbaugh and Garrison were not ready to celebrate a Wave win yet, though, as they scored four points each in a 10-1 Bronco run to trail by only two with 59 seconds remaining. Unfortunately for Santa Clara, they could not hit a tying basket and Damaris Hinojosa hit two free throws with four seconds remaining to seal the win for the Waves.

The Waves attacked the Broncos with a balanced offense. Four players scored in double figures, led by Nadja Morgan and her 18 points. Junior Jen Glysson paced the Broncos with a career-high 15 points.

With their wins, both the Waves and the Lions helped their identical records improve to 12-7 overall and 3-1 in the WCC, good for second place behind Saint Mary's.

Santa Clara will get its shot to avenge their lost weekend in Southern California when they take on these same two teams this weekend. The Lions will be in for a 7 p.m. game on Friday. The Waves will visit the Bubble Saturday, also at 7 p.m.

"We are going to practice hard this week," Garrison said. "We will be ready to go get them this weekend."