CINCINNATI – A loud and raucous crowd inside Cintas Center was silenced early as Santa Clara men's basketball jumped all over Xavier with a dominating first half to set the tone early in a 19-point victory. The Broncos improved to 3-0 on the young season with an 87-68 victory.

SCU had their best shooting performance of the young season, knocking down 55 percent (35-of-64) of their attempts while suffocating the Musketeers' offense by allowing just 34 percent defensively. Five Broncos scored in double figures with Elijah Mahi leading the charge yet again with 18 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Santa Clara (3-0) dominated the first 20 minutes as staunch defense caused all sorts of problems for the Musketeers. The Broncos held Xavier to just 33 percent shooting (8-of-24) with an 0-for-5 mark from 3-point range, and dominated the boards with 21 rebounds to the Musketeers' 13.
• Christian Hammond opened the scoring and posted nine of Santa Clara's first 13 points as the Broncos jumped out to a 13-8 advantage before the game's first media break. Bukky Oboye and Mahi scored layups on consecutive possessions to extend that lead to 10 at 28-18 and kick-start a 15-2 run that would run through the end of the period. Hammond put the finishing touches on the scoring with a floater at the buzzer that found its mark to give SCU a 39-20 advantage.  
• That dominance bridged over into the second half as the Broncos put their foot on the gas and extended the lead to as much as 30 with less than three minutes to play. Santa Clara led by no less than 14 for the rest of the evening.

NOTABLE NUMBERS:

• Santa Clara improved to 2-1 all-time against the Musketeers and improved to 14-19 all time against members of the Big East Conference.
• The Broncos finished with 11 blocks, tied for the third-most in program history. Thierry Darlan led the way with four blocks while Oboye notched three.  
• Mahi has now scored at least 14 points in all three games and has led or has tied for leading scorer in all three contests.  
• Hammond matched his season/career high in the first half alone with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting. He finished with a career-best 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
• Allen Graves turned in his first-career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. It's his second-straight game with 10 or more rebounds.
• Sash Gavalyugov finished with 10 points for his second-straight game in double figure scoring.
• Oboye tied his career-high in points with nine before fouling out.
• Brenton Knapper logged 10 points for his 10^th career game in double figures.
• Jake Ensminger pulled down seven rebounds to go with six points while Darlan tallied eight points and six rebounds in addition to his block tally.
• Santa Clara didn't have usual numbers from 3-point range, attempting just 13 total treys with five makes.
• SCU won the battle of the boards, 42-33. They've out-rebounded their opponent in all three games this season.
• The 19-point victory is Santa Clara's largest margin of victory in a nonconference road game since defeating San Jose State by 22 on Dec. 21, 2021 (79-57). 
• Roddie Anderson III led Xavier (2-1) with a game-high 29 points.

POSTGAME COMMENTS:
 
HIGHLIGHTS:
  UP NEXT:
The Broncos return to the Leavey Center on Saturday, Nov. 15, to take on Nevada in a 4:00 p.m. PT tip.