LOS ANGELES – Make it five straight years with double digit victories in West Coast Conference play for Santa Clara men's basketball. The Broncos took care of business on the road Saturday evening against LMU, turning in a season-high 104 points to complete the regular-season sweep over the Lions and notch their sixth-straight win.

Five Broncos scored in double figures with senior guard Brenton Knapper leading the charge with a career-high 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting (3-5 3PT). Two freshmen also had brilliant nights with Allen Graves turning in his second-career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds and KJ Cochran notching a season-best 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Santa Clara (19-5, 10-1) opened the game on a 12–2 run and built a 14-point lead at 31–17 with eight minutes remaining in the half. LMU (11-13, 2-9) answered with a late surge to trim the deficit to five in the final two minutes, but the Broncos closed the half on an 8–0 run to regain control at the intermission.
• The Broncos led 44–31 at halftime after shooting 52 percent from the field, including a 5-of-13 start from three-point range. Santa Clara also capitalized on 11 forced turnovers with 13 points.
• Elijah Mahi led all players with 12 points at the break, while Graves added nine points on 4-of-4 shooting.
• The Broncos' run bridged into the second half with Knapper scoring three of SCU's first five field goals to start the second period, extending the run to 18-0 and the lead to 23 at 54-31.   
• Santa Clara never looked back, leading by at least 20 for the remainder of the night. They reached the 100-point mark on a Jake Ensminger layup with 40 seconds left and Cochran buried a trey with 21 seconds remaining to put an exclamation point on the victory at 104-73.
• The Broncos shot 51 percent – their ninth game shooting 50 percent or better – and were a solid 18-of-22 from the charity stripe. They capitalized on 22 forced turnovers with 28 points and controlled the boards with a 41-20 advantage, including 18 off the offensive glass.
• LMU shot 44 percent from the floor and was limited to 4-of-17 from distance. Myron Amey Jr. led the way individually with 18 points.

NOTABLE NUMBERS:

• Knapper's 22 points (9-14 FG) bested his previous high of 18 points scored on the road last season against Washington State. It was his ninth game in double figures on the season. He also notched a new career best in steals with five on the evening.
• Santa Clara reached the 100-point marker for the third time this season. It's the most SCU has scored since scoring 109 at Washington State last year.
• Hammond increased his double figure scoring tally to 20 games with a 12-point evening.
• Graves reached double figures for the 16^th time overall and for the eighth-consecutive game. The big man finished 7-of-8 from the floor and also notched a pair of steals.
• Graves has now pulled down double digit rebounds five times to lead the team. 
• Cochran's career scoring night was his second-straight with 10 or more points and his sixth such game overall. He also tied his season-high for rebounds (4).
• Mahi logged 12 points, all in the first half, for his 19^th game in double figures. The Toronto native also pulled down six rebounds and had four steals (career-high) for the second-straight game.
• Sash Gavalyugov didn't have quite the scoring night he had the last time the Broncos and Lions faced off, but he did dish out a career-high six assists to lead the team.
• Ensminger and Thierry Darlan each contributed eight points.
• SCU finished 12-of-31 from 3-point range for their 16^th game with 10-plus treys.
• The Broncos logged their 12^th game with double digit steals, finishing with 13 takeaways.
• Santa Clara improved to 15-0 on the season when scoring 80 or more points.
• At 19-5 overall and 10-1 in conference play, the Broncos are still off to their best start since 1994-95 (21-5, 12-2).
• SCU's six-game win streak is their longest in conference play since winning seven consecutive to close out the 2022-23 regular season.
• This was Santa Clara's 100^th win in the long-standing series against the Lions (100-65). Both wins over LMU this season were by 31 points.

POSTGAME COMMENTS: UP NEXT:
The Broncos will remain on the road for both of next week's contests beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 4, just up the road in Stockton against Pacific. SCU will then make the trek to Pullman, Wash. for a Feb. 7 meeting with Washington State.