LOS ANGELES – Behind another outstanding defensive effort coupled with some great individual offensive performances, Santa Clara men's basketball extended their streak of winning West Coast Conference openers to seven-straight with a 68-57 road victory over LMU in Gersten Pavilion. The Bronco defense held the Lions to just 29.8 percent shooting and a 4-for-22 mark from 3-point range (18.2 percent).
 
The game was especially memorable for graduate guard Carlos Marshall, Jr., who finished with 13 points to eclipse 1,000 points for his career.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• LMU (7-8, 0-1) drew first blood with an 8-0 run to open the contest. However the Broncos scored the next seven and took the lead outright with 7:08 to play on an Adama-Alpha Bal jumper to make it 17-14.
• The lead changed back over in the Lions' favor just one more time before consecutive buckets from Marshall Jr. and Jalen Benjamin gave Santa Clara (10-6, 1-0) the lead for good with 4:30 to go. Bal knocked down a triple just before the buzzer to give the Broncos a 32-27 advantage going into the locker room.
• That lead quickly blossomed into double digits and grew to as much as 19 midway through the second half.
• LMU outscored the Broncos 15-7 in the final eight minutes to attempt to whittle away at the big deficit, including a buzzer-beating trey to cut it to 11 for the 68-57 final score.

 
NOTABLE NUMBERS:

• The win was Santa Clara's seventh-straight in WCC openers dating back to 2017.
• It was the fourth-straight victory over LMU and the fifth in the last six tries.
• This is the seventh time this season that the Broncos have held their opponent to under 37 percent shooting.
• Bal finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting, including a 5-for-9 mark from 3-point range. It was his fifth game this season with 20 or more points.
• In addition to his 13 points, Marshall, Jr. pulled down seven rebounds and had a pair of steals.
• Brenton Knapper and Christoph Tilly each scored 10 points with Knapper coming away with a career-high seven rebounds.
• Turnovers, something that was a thorn in the Broncos' side throughout nonconference play, were limited to just nine and resulted in just eight points.
• The Broncos finished the game shooting 43 percent (25-of-48) and was an efficient 11-for-14 at the charity stripe.
• Santa Clara pulled down 42 rebounds to the Lions' 36 and also dished out 11 assists against eight for LMU.
• LMU was led by 14 points from Keli Leaupepe and 13 points, nine rebounds for Alex Merkviladze.

 
POSTGAME COMMENTS: NEXT UP:
The Broncos will stick around SoCal for a couple of more days as they head over to Malibu to take on Pepperdine (7-9, 0-1) for a 7:00 p.m. tip on Saturday evening. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.