Santa Clara Broncos

[LIONS90045]

Santa Clara Broncos

Member: WCC
Record: W 17 - L 8
Conference: W 5 - L 5

Roster:

www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/roster/_/id/2541

Leading Scorers:

Barndin Podziemski G 6'5" 205 SO 19.0
Carlos Stewart G 6'1" 185 SO 15.7
Keshawn Justice F 6'7" 225 SR 13.3
Carlos Marshall Jr. G 6'6" 205 SR 10.0
Parket Braun F 6'10" 215 SR 7.8
Jaden Bediako C 6'10" 245 SR 6.6

www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/2541

This is our only game against the Broncos this season.
Santa Clara is one of the teams competing for the third spot in the WCC, along with the Lions and others. Of the Broncos 5 losses, 2 each were to the Gaels and the Zags; the other to Pacific. The Broncos beat USF twice and their first game with BYU. They won their return match with the Tigers and also toppled the Waves.
The Broncos 2 top scorers are Sophomore guards who will be around for a few years. The remaining top 6 scorers are Senoirs, perhaps wiley veterans.
Jaden Bediako 6'10" 245 center is the kind of player that can give the Lions fits, especially if Issanza in not available.

Gametime: Saturday, Feb 11, 4 pm in Santa Clara.
VIdeo: Bally Sports SoCal (local), NBC Sports California, Bally Sports San Diego, ROOT Sports NW.

[LIONS90045]

Right now both teams have 5 losses in the WCC: LMU 7-5, Broncos 6-5.
BYU and Pacific have 6 losses.
This game is important to stay in 3rd place. But aren’t they all from here on.
Pepperdine seems to finally have found their footing in last night win over BYU and we have them left to play as well as a Zags rematch, who will be gunning for bear.
Go Lions 🦁.

[golions]

Huge 2-gamer in the standings. Need to avoid the dreaded bounce off a big win.

Go Lions!

[LIONS90045]

Santa Clara has an active board and here is one Bronco's take on tomorrow's game:

"Tip-off: 4pm @ Leavey
TV: NBC Sports California
Line: Torvik- Broncos -4.7, 67% win prob; ESPN- 64% win prob, no line yet.

LMU:
Lions are the surprise team of the season in the WCC. 17-9 overall, 7-5 in the WCC, coming off the big, OT upset of SMC. Lions are currently 1/2 game ahead of the Broncos.
Top players:
6-2 guard Cam Shelton (19.8pts, 5.7rebs, 4.4assists, 35% from 3).
6-6 forward Keli Leaupepe (13.6pts, 6.7rebs, 43% from 3)
6-3 guard Jalin Anderson (10pts, 38% from 3)
6-6 wing Justin Ahrens (7pts, 34% from 3)
6-7 forward Alex Merkviladze (7.6pts, 4rebs, 38% from 3)
In the post: 6-8 forward Michael Graham and 7-1 Rick Issanza are both athletic, not significant scorers but they provide legit size, rebounding, rim protection and post D…all things that LMU lacked last season and IMO a big reason the Lions have been better this year.

One red flag for our Broncos…3pt D has been a problem while the Lions rely heavily on the 3, are 56th in the country in 3pt rate, and shoot it at 37%, ranked mid-30’s in the country. There isn’t 1 or 2 guys carrying them or shooting a boat load of 3’s; 3 pt production is spread over 5 guys who average 1 to 2 made 3’s a game.

Cam Shelton has really stepped up for them and is having a great season. While he’s capable of sinking 3’s, he’s more of slasher, does a great job of getting to the rim and to the FT line. The slashing breaks down the D, forces help and rotation and opens opportunities for kick-outs. I suspect Stewart will get the Def assignment; it’s going to be critical for Stewart to simply stay in front of Shelton and limit his opportunities to get in to the rim.

And a question for the Lions…will the come in playing with energy and confidence after the win over SMC, or will they be a bit emotionally drained and unfocused after the high of that win?

For the Broncos, we need to play a cleaner, more fundamentally sound game…make FT’s at a decent rate, take high quality shots, shoot more consistently. We need to play with urgency and focus throughout the game, not count on Stewart, Podz or Justice going on a late game run to get us the win.

Prediction: 77-73 Broncos in a nail biter.

As has been mentioned, this game is key for the Broncos in pursuit of 3’d place…with only one game vs. LMU, the winner will own the tiebreaker should it come to that. A Bronco loss would drop them 1.5 games behind LMU with only 4 to play."

Pretty fair analysis in my opinion but he/she errs in predicting the outcome.

forum.wakeupswig.com/t/wcc-game-12-lmu/589

[LIONS90045]

ESPN has the Broncos as 4.5 point favorites.

[t]

www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2023-02-10/lmu-basketball-racking-wins-not-seen-high-flying-1990-team?amp

[LIONS90045]

Secret weapon - James Nobles
First serious minutes
Fantastic 3!
Welcome Mr Nobles!
❤️

[lionlife]

They can't possibly keep playing so far off us in the second half, the way we're shooting. Hopefully that opens the paint up.

[pumpfake]

He also got the rebound at the other end. WIth Lamaj out and Alex with 3 fouls, James is getting his chance. Great to see that he was ready for the moment. Welcome to the party James!

[LIONS90045]

Great article “t”. Thanks
Such publicity won’t hurt recruiting!

[LIONS90045]

Is Sniper dressed? I haven’t seen him.

[LIONS90045]

Ahrens shot is off tonite so far

[cs17]

Sniper has plantar fasciitis. Hopefully he’s back this week.

Tough L and no calls going their way, but the boys battled.

Let’s get back to our upset ways at Gersten this week!

[golions1444]

Died by the 3 tonight. We’re missing lamaj and sniper for more depth off the bench. Cam was incredible again. Santa Clara is good but we should have won that

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

No shame losing to Santa Clara on their court, and we almost pulled it out again.

We need to figure out a way to have a better start to games. It’s tough to ask to keep having to dig out of an early hole every game.

Really proud of the effort. It would be great to finish in the top four and get two byes, hope that happens.

Go Lions!