LAS VEGAS - Fresh off a 76-68 victory over 6-seed Pacific, Santa Clara men's basketball turns their sights to Monday evening's Credit Union 1 WCC Championship semifinal where they will face off with rival No. 21 Saint Mary's for the third time this season. The game is slated for an 8:30 p.m. PT tip on ESPN2 with Dave Flemming and Sean Farnham once again on the call from Orleans Arena. Also once again, fans can catch Anthony Passarelli and Henry Caruso's audio-only call via Sidearm Streaming.
SERIES HISTORY VS. SAINT MARY’S
Santa Clara leads the historic rivalry against the Gaels 137-104. The teams will be meeting in the WCC Tournament for the 15th time in which Saint Mary’s holds an 8-6 advantage in the prior 14 meetings. The Broncos are looking for their first win over the Gaels in the tournament since 2007 and are meeting their Bay Area rivals in the semifinal round for the third time over the last five years.
THIS SEASON AGAINST THE GAELS
SCU and Saint Mary’s split the regular-season series with each team winning at home. The Broncos picked up one of their signature wins of the year with a 62-54 triumph in Leavey Center on January 17th, breaking an eight-game losing skid in the series. Christian Hammond logged 25 points - the most allowed by the Gaels since Vanderbilt’s Duke Miles (25) in November - while Allen Graves chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds in the victory.
Things did not go as well for the Broncos in the rematch in Moraga on Feb. 25. Despite a hard-fought opening half, the Gaels proved to be too much down the stretch as they fed off the home crowd energy for an 86-67 win. Saint Mary’s dominated the boards with a plus-30 advantage (51-21). Graves once again had a solid game with 20 points (second-highest total of the season).
HISTORIC 3-POINT SHOOTING NIGHT AGAINST PACIFIC
The Broncos knocked down 15 3-pointers in the quarterfinal win over Pacific - tied for the most in program history in the WCC Tournament (15 vs. Gonzaga in 2001). It was SCU’s 20th game with 10 or more on the year and their third with 15 or more.
Santa Clara has 324 treys on the season - the second-most in program history behind last season’s WCC record 372 triples.
THIRD 25-WIN CAMPAIGN IN PROGRAM HISTORY
At 25-7, Santa Clara has reached the 25-win marker for just the third time in program history. The Broncos are now one win shy of tying the 2012-13 CBI
Champs for second-most and two away from the program record of 27 set in 1968-69.
25 wins are also tied for the most by a Herb Sendek-coached team in his 32-year tenure (2008-09 Arizona State).
A DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR MAHI
Elijah Mahi turned in just his second-career double-double with 13 points and a career-best 11 rebounds against Pacific. It was the first double-double by a Bronco in the WCC Tournament since Brandin Podziemski nearly tallied a triple-double in the 2023 double-overtime loss against San Francisco (22 pts, 11 reb, 9 ast).
GRAVES CONTINUES TO DOMINATE
Allen Graves led the Broncos with 19 points against Pacific. It was his 23rd double figure scoring game and the 16th-straight, excluding the San Francisco road win on Feb. 21 in which he played less than four minutes due to injury. The Ponchatoula, La., product has turned in his top-three scoring efforts over the last month with 30 at Washington State on Feb. 7, 20 at Saint Mary’s on Feb. 25 and the 19-point effort against the Tigers.
SENDEK TALLIES NO. 599
Herb Sendek picked up win No. 599 in Sunday’s victory, moving into a tie with legendary Oregon State coach Slats Gill for the 45th-most in NCAA Division I history.
BACK IN THE SEMIFINALS
Santa Clara is playing in the WCC Tournament semifinal round for the fourth time over the last six seasons. Two of the three prior bouts were against Saint Mary’s. The Broncos are looking to advance beyond the semifinal for the first time since 2001.
LOOKING BACK AT THE REGULAR SEASON
With a 24-7 record, Santa Clara posted the second-most regular-season victories in program history, just two behind the program record of 26 set in 1968-69 when the Broncos reached No. 3 in the AP Poll en route to a 26-1 regular season before falling to Lew Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA Tournament.
TOP FOUR YET AGAIN
Santa Clara posted a top-four finish in the WCC standings for the fifth-consecutive year - the program’s longest streak since an eight-year stretch from 1995-2002. The Broncos finished in third place for the first time since doing so in back-to-back years in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
SENDEK JOINS ELITE COMPANY WITH 4TH COTY AWARD
Herb Sendek was voted by his peers as the 2025-26 WCC Coach of the Year. It is his first COTY Award in his 10-year tenure with the Broncos, and the fourth COTY Award of his 32-year career in total. Sendek has won the award at four different schools (Miami (OH), NC State, Arizona State, SCU) in four different conferences (MAC, ACC, PAC 10, WCC), and is one of just three coaches to do so in NCAA Division I history along with Dana Altman and Rick Pitino.
GRAVES TAKES HOME MULTIPLE MAJOR WCC AWARDS
Allen Graves earned a pair of major awards from the WCC after a sensational conference slate. The big man took home WCC Freshman of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year honors. He is the 10th Bronco in program history to win freshman and/or newcomer of the year honors - the first since Brandin Podziemski was both the league’s newcomer and co-player of the year in 2022-23 - and the first freshman to win the award since Jared Brownridge in 2013-14.
Graves came off the bench in all 18 of SCU’s conference games to average 13.5 points and 6.6 rebounds. He is the first Bronco to win the league’s sixth man award in its six years of existence.
A TRIO OF FIRST TEAMERS
Graves was one of three Broncos that earned a spot on the WCC’s 10-man all-conference first team, joining Christian Hammond and Elijah Mahi. It was the first All-WCC honor for all three players in their respective careers. The three honorees tied the 2006-07 squad’s total for the most first teamers in program history, and it is the first time that multiple Broncos have earned first team honors since 2022-23 (Podziemski and Carlos Stewart).
Santa Clara and Gonzaga are the only teams to have at least one player on the All-WCC First Team in each of the last six seasons dating back to 2020-21.
OFFENSE ON HISTORIC PACE
At 83.5 points per game, Santa Clara’s offense is going toe-to-toe with the 1969-70 team (83.7) for the best average in program history. Their 11.3 scoring margin currently checks in at No. 3 on the all-time list. Both of those averages rank top-30 nationally and top-three in the WCC.
MORE BIG NUMBERS FROM LEAGUE PLAY
Santa Clara put up impressive numbers across the board in WCC play. The Broncos had the nation’s fifth-best scoring offense in conference games at 87.2 ppg to lead the league. They also led the WCC in 3-pointers (10.4) and steals (10.00) while ranking second in FG percentage (49.1), free throw percentage (78.3) and turnover margin (4.39).
THE TOP 5 WCC PLAYERS ON TORVIK
Santa Clara has two of the top five players in the WCC according to Torvik. Allen Graves rates No. 4 and Christian Hammond is right behind him at 5th. Jake Ensminger also checks inside the top 10 at 8th while Elijah Mahi (12th) and Bukky Oboye (16th) make it five Broncos inside the top 20 in the league.
In the team rankings, Santa Clara is the No. 3 team in the WCC behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, and checks in at 28th nationally.
