SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's basketball dominated the boards and held a talented McNeese State team in check in the second half to improve to 2-0 with a 79-67 victory inside the Leavey Center. The Broncos pulled down 47 rebounds to the Cowboys' 28 and cleaned up the offensive glass with 25 boards that led to 17 second chance points.
Sash Gavalyugov and
Elijah Mahi each tallied 19 points while
Christian Hammond (12) and
Jake Ensminger (11) also reached double figures for the second-straight game.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- It was a tale of two halves with the first 20 minutes resulting in high-pace back-and-forth affair that saw seven lead changes, while the second half saw the Broncos jump out to a quick double figure advantage that maintained for the rest of the evening.
- Santa Clara (2-0) had a sluggish start, trailing 8-2 at the game's first media timeout before Gavalyugov provided a spark off the bench with seven unanswered points of his own to give SCU the advantage.
- McNeese (1-1) regained the lead and pushed it to five before Jake Ensminger and Gavalyugov knocked down consecutive treys to regain the lead at 25-24.
- There were seven total lead changes in the first half with the Broncos capitalizing on the last of the bunch on a Brenton Knapper corner trey that put SCU up 30-27 with 3:00 minutes to play.
- Gavalyugov, who finished with half with 13 points in just eight minutes of work, came up with yet another big shot in the waning moments of the period, knocking down a deep triple before the buzzer to send the Broncos to the locker room with a 37-33 advantage.
- Santa Clara jumped out to a quick start to begin the second half, knocking down three quick 3-pointers before the first media timeout and push the lead to 13 at 48-35.
- That lead grew to as much as 16 and never dipped below 10 for the remainder of the night.
NOTABLE NUMBERS:
- After starting just 1-for-11 from beyond the arc, the Broncos found their rhythm to finish 12-for-31 from distance – their second-straight game with 10 or more treys.
- Gavalyugov scored 15 of his 19 points from behind the arc. The Villanova transfer added three rebounds and was 7-of-13 overall from the floor.
- Mahi reached double figures for the second-straight game and 18th time in total for his career. The Toronto native was also 7-of-13 and did a little bit of everything with four rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.
- Hammond flirted with a double-double for the second-straight game, finishing with eight rebounds, four assists and a block in addition to his 12 points.
- Ensminger was outstanding on both ends of the floor and started the night 3-for-3 from 3-point range to help kick-start the offense. The junior pulled down seven rebounds with five off the offensive glass and tied his career-high of six assists.
- Redshirt freshman Allen Graves was outstanding in the paint, finishing with a game-high 13 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end. The big man also logged six points to go with a block, steal and assist.
- Freshman KJ Cochran made his collegiate debut and finished with two rebounds, a steal and an assist.
- Santa Clara's 25 offensive boards were their most since grabbing 26 against San Diego on Feb. 3, 2024.
- The Broncos finished with a 39 percent shooting clip (26-66) while McNeese was 23-of-51 (45 percent). A key difference was the teams' success beyond the arc where Santa Clara knocked down 12 while limiting the Cowboys to just 4-for-16.
- Freshman Larry Johnson led McNeese with 18 points while the 2025 Southland Conference Player of the Year Javohn Garcia was completely held in check as he finished 0-for-4 from the field in 21 minutes.
- Santa Clara is now 2-0 all-time against McNeese State and improved to 12-1 against teams from the Southland Conference.
POSTGAME COMMENTS:
HIGHLIGHTS:
UP NEXT:
The Broncos hit the road for the first time this season with a long trek to Cincinnati to take on Xavier inside the Cintas Center. The game will be played on Monday, Nov. 10, at 5:30 p.m. PT and will be aired nationally on FS1.
