Feb. 25, 2006

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Santa Clara, CA (Feb. 25) - Unlike their first meeting in January, Loyola Marymount saw Santa Clara's shooters get hot as the Broncos defeated the Lions 81-70 in West Coast Conference action on Saturday night at the Leavey Center.

In the first meeting at Gersten Pavilion, Santa Clara's Mitch Henke, Sean Denison and Brody Angley combined for nine points on 3-for-16 shooting. The trio combined for 49 in the win Saturday. The Lions drop their third straight after winning eight of their first 10 conference games. They already locked up the second seed for the upcoming WCC tournament but fall to 11-16 overall and 8-5 in the WCC. Santa Clara improves to 11-15 and 4-9.

The Lions were led by Brandon Worthy with 14 points and eight assists. Wes Wardrop added 13, Matthew Knight with 12 and Jon Ziri with 11. Angley led all scorers with 19 as five Broncos were in double figures. Denison added 18.

Santa Clara finished the game shooting 28-for-54 from the field, 51.9 percent after hitting just 41 percent in the first half. They went 14-for-20, 70 percent, in the second half. The Lions finished just 41.5 percent, 27-for-65. On the game, Santa Clara went 21-for-28 from the free throw line compared to just 6-for-11 from the Lions.

The Lions hot shooting in the first half kept them in the game as they hit a season-high seven three pointers in the first half to trail by just one, 35-34.

After trailing the entire first half, the Lions came out the aggressor and actually took their first lead of the game with Ziri's layin to start the second frame. The lead grew to three, 38-35 after Wardrop's jumper. The lead would then change hands as the Lions took a 49-48 edge with 15:07 remaining on a pair of free throws by Knight.

However, the hot touch went cold in the second half as Santa Clara built a lead as many as 64-51 with 8:23 remaining. The lead was built when Santa Clara went on a 16-2 run over the next seven minutes for the 13-point lead.

The Lions managed to get the lead to nine, 69-60 after four straight points by Knight. But Santa Clara continued the hot shooting as they quickly responded for a 73-60 lead with 3:16 remaining.

LMU will conclude the regular season at Saint Mary's on Monday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.

- GO LIONS -