San Francisco (14-10, 5-8 WCC) at Santa Clara (8-14, 3-10 WCC)Saturday, Feb. 14 | 2 p.m. | Leavey Center
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The Dons look for the season sweep over long-time foe Santa Clara for the first time since the 1996-97 campaign. Should USF manage the victory, the Dons would have their highest win tally since 2001-02's WNIT tournament season when the team went 18-12. With the Dons' next win, the team will guarantee a .500 or better winning percentage on the year, a mark not seen since that same 2001-02 season.
Tale of the Tape
When the Dons have the ball ...USF Scoring Offense - 68.5 (4th)Â
• Santa Clara Scoring Defense - 67.7 (7th)
USF Field Goal Pct. -.416 (3rd)Â
• Santa Clara FG Pct. Defense -.386 (6th)
USF 3FG Pct. - .308 (6th)Â
• Santa Clara 3FG Pct. Defense - .335 (6th)
USF Free Throw Pct. - .748 (2nd)
When the Broncos have the ball ...Santa Clara Scoring Offense - 64.7 (7th)Â
• USF Scoring Defense - 62.0 (4th)
Santa Clara Field Goal Pct. - .380 (10th)Â
• USF FG Pct. Defense - .376 (3rd)
Santa Clara 3FG Pct. -.280 (10th)Â
• USF 3FG Pct. Defense - .300 (3rd)
Santa Clara Free Throw Pct. - .704 (7th)
#WeAreSF
The Dons have three women averaging double-digit scoring, paced by
Taylor Proctor's team-leading 15.6 points on .490 shooting and 8.0 rebounds a night. Proctor ranks in the WCC top 10 in all three categories.
Taj Winston puts up 11.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. Her steals average is good for first in the league and 46th in the NCAA.
Zhane Dikes adds 10.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and a team-high 2.8 assists a night for the Dons.
Know the Foe
The Broncos enter the week paced by Nici Gilday's 18.1 points and 1.7 steals per game. Marie Bertholdt adds 10.0 points and a team-high 7.5 rebounds for Santa Clara as the twosome make up 43.4 percent of the Broncos' offensive production.Â
Santa Clara sports an overall record of 8-14, with three conference victories on the year. In its last game, the Broncos earned the 64-55 win at Portland on Feb. 7.
Santa Clara Remix
The Dons cruised to a 62-45 victory at War Memorial Gym to stop a string of nine straight victories in the all-time series. USF was paced by a game-high 24 points from
Taylor Proctor, including a 13-of-15 effort from the line. Freshman
Anna Seilund added 12 points, five steals and three assists in her first career start. Nici Gilday, then the WCC's leading scorer was held to just nine points on 3-of-13 shooting, a testament to the Dons' defensive effort.
USF & Santa Clara - The Series
The Broncos hold the 49-36 advantage in the all-time series, and had taken nine straight before meeting up with the Dons earlier this season. The last USF win at the Leavey Center came in 2002-03, a 69-67 victory. Interestingly, USF's first win in program history came at the expense of the Broncos, back in 1976.
Last Time Out
Four overtimes – the longest game in West Coast Conference women's basketball history – featured a battle to the finish between the San Francisco Dons and Gonzaga Bulldogs. In the end, the 10-time defending conference champion escaped with the 91-84 victory last Saturday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.
"I've never been involved in a four overtime game," head coach
Jennifer Azzi noted after the marathon on the court. "Never. This is the first one ever – playing, coaching. I don't even know if I've ever been involved in a three overtime game, so this was pretty crazy. This team is really special. They get along very, very well, and they're very supportive of one another. I'm just so proud of our team."
60 Minutes
USF's four-overtime thriller with Gonzaga on Feb. 7 stands as the longest game in WCC women's basketball history, and the longest contest in NCAA Division 1 this season. The last quadruple overtime contest was a non-conference game in which Baylor and Kentucky racked up a gargantuan score of 130-133 on Dec. 6, 2013, with the Wildcats earning the hard-fought road victory.
Milestones
In the Dons' home contest against BYU on Jan. 29, USF junior
Taylor Proctor and senior
Taj Winston both joined the 1,000-point club. The exclusive list of 20 women is headlined by Mary Hile-Nepfel's school record for both genders of 2,326 points.Â
Jump Around
As was the trend last season, USF has been solid on the opening tip, with the Dons winning 22-of-24 - 91.7 Â percent - of jumps from the circle thus far. Their two miscues came against Nevada on Nov. 25, and against Gonzaga on Jan. 8. If you count taking three of the four overtime tips at Gonzaga, USF is 25-of-28 (89.3%).
On the Horizon
The Dons host their final two opponents of the regular season, welcoming Loyola Marymount for the Pink Game on Thursday at 7 p.m., before bidding farewell to USF's senior trio against Pepperdine Saturday at 2 p.m.
On the Air
Listen to longtime voice of the Dons,
George Devine, behind the mic all season long. Devine is in his 19th season as the play-by-play voice of USF women's basketball.
Watch all home games on theW.tv/live, in partnership with Silver Chalice/Campus Insiders. Catch the action for both home and away contests at usfdons.com/LIVE.
Get Connected
Fans can keep up on the latest in USF Athletics in a variety of ways.- Follow USF Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ DonsAthletics- Follow USF women's basketball on Facebook at www.facebook.com/San FranciscoWBB, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/USFDonsWBB, or via Instagram at www.instagram.com/USFBasketball- Check out video of the Dons in action at www.youtube.com/usfdonsathletics and tune in to Comcast SportsNet California for USF's monthly cable feature series, "Behind the Mask". Check local listings for additional air times, dates and channel information.
