SANTA CLARA — After his team came up short in its bid to knock off 12th-ranked Gonzaga in front of a rare sellout at Leavey Center, Santa Clara coach Herb Sendek was predictably calm and deliberate.
“All season long, we’ve been process-oriented. Going forward, we’ll continue to do the same thing,” Sendek said after a 94-86 defeat in the program’s biggest game in years on Saturday night. “The season is not over.”
In a duel of the top two teams in the West Coast Conference standings, Gonzaga (25-2, 13-1 WCC) spoiled the Broncos’ best start to a season since 1969-70. Santa Clara (22-6, 13-2) sustained its first home defeat in 14 games and had its nine-game win streak — longest in 31 seasons — snapped.
What matters most to the Broncos is landing their first NCAA tournament bid since the days of Steve Nash in 1996. A win over the Zags would have boosted their No. 41 NET computer ranking.
Zags coach Mark Few, whose program has generated 19 consecutive 25-win seasons and has played in the past 28 NCAA tournaments, said there is no doubt in his mind Santa Clara deserves a spot in March Madness.
“They’re an NCAA tournament team. Not only a tournament team, but a team that can win a game or games in the tournament,” Few said. “That’s why this is just a heckuva win. It took all we had.
“We were extremely resilient, but we had to dig probably as deep as we have all year, especially with this crowd and everything. Just a great college basketball game.”
The Broncos have three more games before the WCC tournament at Las Vegas, including trips to San Francisco and Saint Mary’s over the next two weeks.
Gonzaga, which is departing the WCC for the rebuilt Pac-12 next year, plays Wednesday at USF and closes out the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Saint Mary’s.
The Gaels, two-time defending regular-season champs, stayed in the mix with a 72-61 win at Pacific, improving to 12-2 in the WCC, 23-4 overall.
Gonzaga senior forward Graham Ike was a left-handed wrecking ball against the Broncos, totaling 21 points, 15 rebounds and four assists — most of that in the first half when the Zags overcame an eight-point deficit to lead 44-39.
“He was phenomenal, especially in the first half,” Sendek said after Ike posted his seventh consecutive 20-point game. “He is clearly one of the best players in all of college basketball.”
Gonzaga attacked the basket all night, outscoring Santa Clara 66-42 in the paint while shooting nearly 72 percent inside the 3-point arc. The Zags missed just a pair of 2-point shots over the final 20 minutes.
“That’s what they do,” Sendek said. “We prepared for it. They did it anyway.”
Redshirt sophomore guard Christian Hammond led the Broncos with 16 points, senior forward Elijah Mahi scored 15 and redshirt freshman forward Allen Graves added 13 before fouling out late.
Santa Clara never trailed over the game’s first 13 minutes and was up 17-9 after a steal and dunk by freshman KJ Cochran with 11:44 left in the half.
Ike scored seven points to fuel a 9-2 Gonzaga surge that tied the game, and when he scored a layup with 6:25 left, the visitors went ahead 31-29, their first lead of the night.
The Broncos hung close early in the second half and took a 60-55 lead with 12:31 left after consecutive 3-pointers by Thierry Darlan and Sash Gavalyugov.
But the Zags answered with an 8-0 run to take a 63-60 advantage and were the aggressors the rest of the way. Gonzaga converted 13 of its final 14 free throws to ice the win.
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