Jan. 16, 2016 Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
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LOS ANGELES - For the third straight West Coast Conference game, the LMU women's basketball team faced a thrilling ending. But Saturday afternoon in Gersten Pavilion, the Lions would come up just short in a late comeback, falling 57-56 to visiting Santa Clara.
Trailing 48-36 headed into the final quarter of play, the Lions (7-11, 3-5 WCC) rallied, outscoring the Broncos (14-5, 5-3 WCC) 20-9 in the 10 minutes frame. Trailing by six with under two minutes to play, the Lions got a defensive stop followed by a Leslie Lopez-Wood three at the 1:27 mark.
Deanna Johnson would block Santa Clara's next shot attempt and the Lions again responded, this time as Andee Velasco pulled up for a 10-foot jumper, trimming the spread to just one with 39 seconds remaining. Santa Clara would miss again and the Lions secured the defensive rebound.
They got two final looks at a potential game-winner int he final six seconds, but Johnson's runner in the lane would not fall and, after earning the offensive rebound out of bounds, the Broncos' Marie Bertholdt forced Velasco into a turnover as time expired.
Lopez-Wood finished with 16 points for the Lions while Velasco had 10 and Johnson added nine. No Lion reached double-digit rebounds as Santa Clara dominated with a 50-34 advantage. LMU also struggled from the free-throw line, hitting just 8-of-18 (44.4 percent).
The Broncos got 17 points and 12 rebounds from Bertholdt and 15 points from Lori Parkinson.
The teams battled evenly through the first period as LMU held a slim 16-15 advantage at the quarter's end. But things began to slip away int he second and third periods as the Broncos build their double-digit lead. Despite 25 turnovers, helped by 16 Lion steals, it was Santa Clara's 3-2 zone defense that caused the Lions fits. LMU went just 7-for-27 over the second and third quarters combined.
LMU will hit the road next week for the first of back-to-back weekends against BYU and San Diego. The road swing begins Thursday, Jan. 21 at BYU and concludes Saturday, Jan. 23 at San Diego. The Cougars and Toreros will then descend upon Gersten Pavilion the following week.
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