University of San Francisco Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco women's basketball team hosts South Bay rival Santa Clara on Saturday afternoon in the final game of a three-game West Coast Conference season-opening home stand at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.
 
GAME 14 INFORMATION
Date/Time: Jan. 5, 2019 – 2:00 p.m.
Opponent: Santa Clara (7-6, 0-2 WCC)
Site: War Memorial at the Sobrato Center
Tickets: https://bit.ly/2yJatoS
Live Video: https://bit.ly/2RbKxQY
Live Stats: https://bit.ly/2F6OLCR
 
USF AT A GLANCE

• The Dons (5-8, 1-1 WCC) split their first two WCC games last weekend against San Diego and BYU, while the Broncos (7-6, 0-2 WCC) were swept by the same two opponents. USF swept the season series over Santa Clara in 2017-18 and has won three of the last four meetings against the Broncos.
   
• Senior guard Shannon Powell is one of just two players in the WCC (Valerie Higgins, Pacific) ranked among the top-12 in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals. Powell is fourth in scoring (16.8 ppg), 12th in rebounding (6.1 rpg), tied for fourth in assists (4.4 apg) and tied for fourth in steals (2.2 spg).
   
• USF may be three games under .500 at 5-8 overall, but its record is not indicative of its competitiveness this season. The Dons have held leads in six of their eight losses. They led at halftime and in the second half in four of those. The only two defeats they didn't lead in were true road games in the first month of the season at Pac-12 opponents, including Washington State and top-10 ranked Stanford.
   
• Though USF's rebounding margin is only -0.4, having outrebounded or equaling its opponents on six occasions, it's on the offensive glass where the Dons have lacked. Opponents are outrebounding USF 184-141 on the offensive end, topping the Dons there 10 different times. The Dons are 4-6 in games where they've been beaten on the offensive boards, including beating San Diego on Dec. 29, who had a 10-rebound advantage there (19-9).

ABOUT THE BRONCOS
 
Santa Clara (7-6, 0-2 WCC) lost both of its games on the opening weekend of WCC play, falling by 10 to BYU and eight to San Diego, both at home. The Broncos have lost five of their last seven games, including three of their last five road contests. They have only played five road games all season, and two of those were in Northern California.
 
Tia Hay leads Santa Clara as its only double-digit scorer with 13.8 points per game. Five other Broncos average at least 5.2 ppg, while the team ranks as the WCC's lowest-scoring offense at 57.9 ppg. But the Broncos are also the conference's second-best scoring defense, limiting opponents to just 59.7 ppg. Santa Clara is the leading blocking team in the WCC with 4.2 per game, and Lauren Yearwood powers them there with a conference-best 2.9 per contest.
 
LAST GAME VS. THE COUGARS
 
San Francisco competed with one of the WCC's best on Monday, holding multiple first-half leads and even going up by as much as five in the third, but visiting BYU capitalized on turnovers and made big 3-pointers down the stretch to come from behind and beat the Dons, 67-59, in a WCC matchup at War Memorial at Sobrato Center.
 
San Francisco shut down the Cougars in the first period. The Dons outscored them, 16-9, while holding them to 21.1 percent shooting. USF was efficient in the first 10 minutes, assisting on six of its seven baskets and shooting 46.7 percent to jump out to a seven-point lead. A 10-2 run in the last half of the frame turned a one-point deficit into a 16-9 lead.
 
UP NEXT
 
San Francisco travels to Southern California next weekend to face Loyola Marymount (Thursday) and Pepperdine (Saturday) in its first road WCC games of the season. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.