SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara's offense roared to life in the second half to power their way to a fifth-consecutive win with an 88-73 victory over rival San Francisco Wednesday evening in Leavey Center. The Broncos improved to 9-1 in conference play and remain a perfect 12-0 at home.  

Santa Clara's two leading scorers did what they do best with Christian Hammond logging a game-high 21 points, all in the second half, and Elijah Mahi adding 18 points. The Broncos shot just 38.7 percent in the first half before completely flipping the script in the final 20 minutes with 54 points on 61.8 percent shooting.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Points were hard to come by for both teams for the bulk of the first half. The Dons built an 11-4 advantage before a 6-0 Bronco run made it an 11-10 affair at the 11-minute mark. Santa Clara (18-5, 9-1) took their first lead with just over six minutes remaining in the period following a Hammond steal and transition 3-pointer from KJ Cochran to take a 19-17 lead.
• The lead changed hands three more times in the half before the Broncos capitalized on a pair of steals with four quick points courtesy of transition dunks by Jake Ensminger and Elijah Mahi with 2:19 remaining. Sash Gavalyugov scored a layup just ahead of the buzzer to send SCU into the locker room up 34-31.
• The Broncos converted on 39 percent in the half while USF shot 48 percent. Santa Clara scored 12 of their 34 first half points off of turnovers.
• The Broncos scored the first five points of the second half to take a quick eight-point lead at 39-31. The lead increased to 11 following back-to-back triples from Hammond and Mahi to make it 49-38 with 15 minutes to play.
• San Francisco (13-10, 5-5) responded with a 9-0 run to cut the lead down to three at 52-49, but the Broncos responded with a Mahi jumper and corner trey from Cochran, his third of the night, to regain the momentum.
• The Broncos used a 13-2 run to build a 16-point advantage with just under six minutes remaining and held on to a double figure margin for the remainder of the night, leading by as much as 18 inside the final minute.  
• Hammond was held scoreless in the opening half with an 0-for-5 start from the field, but exploded the final 20 minutes with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including a phenomenal 4-for-5 mark from beyond the arc.
• Santa Clara shot 51 percent as a whole for the game, their eighth game shooting 50 percent or better, while San Francisco finished 46 percent.
• The Broncos were out-rebounded for just the fifth time this season (36-31), but committed just seven turnovers to tie their season low. Defensively, Santa Clara came away with 14 turnovers leading to 25 points.

NOTABLE NUMBERS:

• Hammond's 21 points gave him his ninth 20-point game of the season, tying Adama-Alpha Bal's total from 2023-24 for the most over the last three years.
• Hammond tied his career-high for 3-pointers, knocking down four of his six attempts.
• Mahi notched his 18^th double figure scoring game and logged a career-high four steals to go with two assists and two rebounds.
• Freshmen Allen Graves and Cochran each turned in 11 points. Graves also pulled down six rebounds and had a trio of steals while Cochran tied his career-high for 3-pointers on 3-for-4 shooting.
• Cochran also tied his career high for rebounds with four.
• Graves has scored in double figures 15 times, good for third on the team behind Hammond and Mahi, and has done so seven consecutive games.
• Bukky Oboye tallied eight rebounds for the second-consecutive game, tying his career high, and logged six points before fouling out.
• Ensminger did a bit of everything, finishing with seven points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals while committing just one turnover.
• Gavalyugov finished with eight points, his seventh consecutive contest with at least seven on the stat sheet.
• SCU finished with double figure treys for the 15^th time on the season, finishing 12-of-26 from beyond the arc.
• The Broncos tallied their 11^th game with double digit steals, finishing with 12.
• Santa Clara's 12-0 start in Leavey Center is their longest home win streak since winning 17-straight from 2018-19 and 2019-20.
• The Broncos extended their home win streak against the Dons to four dating back 2022.
• Santa Clara improved to 14-0 on the season when scoring at least 80 points. 

POSTGAME COMMENTS:


UP NEXT:
Santa Clara is hitting the road for SoCal for a Saturday showdown against LMU on Jan. 31. Tip is set for 6:00 p.m. PT and will be streamed live on ESPN+.