SANTA CLARA, Calif. – SMC Women's Basketball owned the final three quarters in Santa Clara for a 78-64 win over the Broncos on Thursday night.
 
The Gaels led by as many as 23 points mid-way through the fourth quarter after leading by eight points at halftime and 12 to start the fourth.
 
Saint Mary's started the game hot offensively, hitting their first nine shots of the game. But Santa Clara was 5 of 10 on threes in the first quarter and led 23-20 after a quarter of play.
 
But a 14-2 run by SMC in the second quarter capped off by threes from Taycee Wedin and Makena Mastora made it 40-30 Gaels with 2:22 to go before the half. Saint Mary's maintained their lead in the third, getting it up to 12 points on two different occasions, each time on baskets in the paint by Hannah Rapp.
 
Not only did the Gaels heat up from downtown themselves, they shut down the outside shooting of the Broncos. They kept Santa Clara to just nine points on 3 of 20 shooting from the floor in the third quarter and 3 of 16 on threes in the last three quarters by continuing their top-ranked, three-point defense in the WCC.  
 
An 11-0 run early in the fourth quarter got the Gaels out to their 23-point lead with 5:14 left to play on a Wedin layup that was created by forcing a turnover. Their last lead of 20-plus points came with 2:27 remaining on a Rapp layup that made it 74-53 Saint Mary's.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Bamberger collected her fourth double-double of the season with a game-high 17 points and 11 rebounds, giving her 502 combined rebounds in her career as a Gael and Washington Husky.

Rapp scored a career-high 14 points with six boards, Wedin finished with 13 points while going 3 for 4 from deep, and Tayla Dalton finished with 10 points. Leia Hanafin led the team with four assists. Aspen Garrison set a career-high in blocks with three rejections.
 
The Gaels improved to 7-1 on the season when they hold their opponents to a shooting percentage in the thirties after keeping the Broncos to 34.4% from the floor while shooting 49.2% themselves and going 9 of 17 on threes.
 
SMC is now 9-2 when the win the rebounding battle after edging out the Broncos 38-36 on the glass and 3-1 when they commit fewer turnovers than their opponent after having two less than the Broncos tonight (18-16).

UP NEXT
The Gaels will stay local but play a road game at the University of San Francisco at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 14 as part of an SMC-USF double header.