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Dons Fall To Santa Clara in WCC's, Look to NIT
March 5, 2005
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer and USFDons.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Kyle Bailey scored 17 points and Santa Clara beat San Francisco 67-60 Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference tournament despite failing to make a field goal in the final 13 minutes.
Brody Angley had 13 points and seven rebounds for third-seeded Santa Clara (15-15), which avenged two narrow regular-season losses to the Dons with a tenacious victory in the Broncos' tournament opener on their home floor.
Santa Clara maintained its lead with a long parade to the free throw line, going 19-for-27 in the second half. Bailey hit eight free throws after halftime, while Travis Niesen went 8-for-8 and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.
Tyrone Riley scored 18 points and WCC scoring leader John Cox had 17 for the Dons (16-12), who grew infuriated by the second-half foul disparity. But they couldn't make enough shots to get any closer than eight points until the final seconds. USF now hopes tp receive an NIT berth.
Santa Clara advanced to face second-seeded Saint Mary's in the semifinals on Sunday night.
The Broncos built a big lead early in the second half with good outside shooting and a timely fast break.
Incredibly, the Dons held Santa Clara without a field goal after Ethan Rohde's 3-pointer with 13:33 left, but still couldn't rally.
"We can defend everywhere on the floor," said Dons coach Jessie Evans, "But we cannot defemd the free-throw line. I thought it was a pretty big difference for a league game. When you hold the team to 36 percent shooting - our goal was under 40 - you can't come back when a team is shooting that many free throws. When you play at home sometimes you intimidate the officials a bit. That's just a fact when you play at home." "Now we have to hope for an NIT berth," concluded Evans. "We have a good resume with wins against top-25 teams Pacific and Gonzaga. We also beat conference champions Penn and St. Joseph's."Santa Clara led 53-34 on Bailey's free throws with 11:37 to play, but San Francisco scored the next 11 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Riley.
Angley scored 12 points in the first half, just three shy of his career high.
