Santa Clara outlasts LMU in Overtime

March 8, 2013; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Loyola Marymount Lions guard

(3) shoots past Santa Clara Broncos forward

(44) during the second half in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference tournament at Orleans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Santa Clara Broncos got a key home victory, defeating LMU 86-61 in overtime at the Leavey Center on Saturday.  Jared Brownridge led Santa Clara in scoring with 29 points, while Brandon Clark added 26 points.  Evan Roquemore chipped in 10 points and 5 assists, while John McArthur led the Bronco rebounding charge with 8 boards.

Anthony Ireland had his best game of the season for LMU, scoring 34 points and dishing out 7 assists.  Evan Payne scored 10 points for the Lions, but did so on 15 shot attempts.  Ben Dickinson and C.J. Blackwell rounded out the Lions double-figure scorers with 12 and 10 points respectively.

The game was tight throughout, and Anthony Ireland hit a jumper with 12 seconds left to send the game into overtime, after Brandon Clark had hit two free throws giving Santa Clara the lead.  The Broncos started overtime on a 7-0 run led by Clark and Brownridge and never looked back from there, getting the victory easily in overtime.

Keys to the Game Revisited

Santa Clara

✓ – Roquemore needs at least 5 assists, 2 of them need to be to big men: Roquemore finished with 5 assists, including one each to John McArthur, Jerry Brown, and Yannick Atanga.  While no big man had a huge scoring night, it was nice to see Roquemore make an effort to get the bigs involved on offense.

LMU

✓- Get Levin and Dickinson going on offense:  While Levin had 9 points and 7 rebounds, Dickinson had his first double-figure scoring game in a while, scoring 12 points.  They did what they could offensively to supplement Anthony Ireland, which is why the Lions were able to hang around for so long in this game.

Stat of the Night

Three point shooting: Santa Clara and their hot shooting guards shot 10/25 from beyond the arc while LMU was not able to hit a single three, going 0/7 from beyond the arc.

The Bottom Line

Santa Clara proved that they are not one of the bottom tier teams in the West Coast Conference with a clutch overtime victory.  Both teams are 2-2 in league play, further illustrating the parity that exists in the league this season.

LMU travels to last place San Diego on Thursday, while Santa Clara will play at Saint Mary’s that same day.