The Santa Clara women’s basketball team took on the Portland Pilots on Saturday afternoon. Portland beat Santa Clara 80-68; The Broncos got off to a good start, leading the Pilots 22-17 after the first quarter behind Tess Heal’s eight first-quarter points.
Portland came out firing in the second quarter as they opened it with a 12-0 run. The Pilots outscored the Broncos 25-12 in the second quarter; Santa Clara battled but could not pull out the comeback.
Portland Strong Inside
Alex Fowler’s game-high 26 points led the Pilots; she shot 12-18 from the field. Liana Kaitu’u came off the bench with 21 points on 8-12 shooting. Santa Clara had no answer for Fowler and Kaitu’u in the post. Both Players dominated their matchups. The Pilots shot 61.5% from the field and 54.5% from beyond the arc. You will win a lot of games shooting a high percentage.
Santa Clara
Heal led the Broncos with 22 points on 11-19 shooting from the field. She also dished out seven assists. It was my first time seeing Heal in person; she is the real deal. On the season, Heal is averaging 16.2 points per game on 49% shooting. Lara Edmanson pitched in with 14 points, while Marya Hudgins added ten points.
The Broncos shot pretty well from the field as well, shooting 49.2% and 40% from three-point land. On defense, they battled, forcing 12 turnovers and scoring 19 points off of them. Both teams scored well in the paint, but Portland outscored Santa Clara 48-46 in paint points.
It was a fun game to watch, Heal was amazing, and I loved the fight the Broncos played with; Portland did a good job feeding the post all game long. It was the first team in a while a team kept feeding their post players.
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