SANTA CLARA, Calif. – With eight tenths of a second left in the contest the University of San Francisco men's basketball team had one final chance at a miracle. Unfortunately for the Dons Frankie Ferrari's desperation heave fell short and host Santa Clara came away with the 68-65 win Saturday night at the Leavey Center. 
 
USF (21-7, 9-5 WCC) was once again led by Ferrari who finished with 17 points, 11 coming in a blistering second half.  Ferrari finished the evening 6-for-14 from the field and 5-for-8 from beyond the arc, all while dishing out a game-high nine assists. With 18:16 in the second half, Ferrari eclipsed another major milestone becoming the 36^th player in USF history to score 1,000 points. 
 
Jimbo Lull was the only other Don in double figures, he finished with 12 points going 5-for-6 from the floor.  Offensively, USF had a solid evening. The Dons shot 47.2 percent from the field going 25-for-53 with seven players scoring at least five points.  Turnovers were the Achilles heel for USF tonight. The Dons turned the ball over 15 teams which led to 21 points for the Broncos.
 
Santa Clara (15-13, 7-7 WCC) had four players in double figures, led by Josip Vrankick's game-high 20 points.  SCU shot 46.3 percent from the field, but was  just 27.8 percent from beyond the arc.  The paint and the free throw line was where SCU did their damage.  The Broncos were 13-for-17 from the charity stripe. Inside the key, the Broncos scored 36 of their 68 points.
 
After starting the contest 0-for-4 from the field and falling beyond 4-0, the Dons offense hit back-to-back triples from Ferrari and Nate Renfro to tie the game at 6-6.  Matt McCarthy broke the tie with a jumper at the elbow to put the Dons up 8-6.  After an 8-0 run by the Dons, Santa Clara responded with a 9-0 run of their own to take a 20-16 lead.  Remu Raitanen ended that streak with a triple in front of the Broncos bench.
 
With 2:30 to play in the opening half, McCarthy got a layup in traffic to give the Dons their first lead since midway through the half.  But Santa Clara continued to take advantage of USF miscues and went into the locker room leading 33-30. The Dons shot 52.0 percent from the field in the opening half going 13-for-25 but 10 USF turnovers led to 14 points for Santa Clara.
 
Out of the break the Dons scored seven points in a little over 30 seconds to take the lead 39-38.  USF's run was started by a 3-point field goal by Ferrari that was his 1,000 career point. The back and forth play continued into the latter half of the second period with the game knotted up 53-53 with under seven minutes to play.  Jamaree Bouyea gave the Dons a huge spark with multiple highlight reel layups in traffic during that stretch. He finished with nine points, seven coming after the intermission.
 
With 2:23 in the contest the Broncos took a 2-point lead, it was the 13^th and final lead change of the game. The Broncos defense held the Dons scoreless for the remainder of the contest.  During that stretch, the Dons were 0-for-5 from the field while the Broncos hit 5-of-7. 
 
GAME NOTES

• Ferrari becomes the 36^th player in USF history to score 1,000 points. With 1,010 points, Ferrari passes Cody Doolin (2010-13) for 35^th all-time.  Next on the list Mike Quick (1970-73) at 34^th with 1,019 and Erwin Mueller (1963-66) who is 33^rd all-time with 1,020.
• Ferrari scored his 1,000 point in his 107^th career game.  Over the last two seasons Ferrari has scored 859 points.
• Nate Renfro and Matt McCarthy moved closer to the record for career games played at USF.  With 128 career games played, Renfro tied Angelo Caloiaro (2008-12) with the USF record, McCarthy sits in third all-time with 127 games.

 
NEXT UP
The Dons return home for the final two games of the regular season starting with a contest against the Toreros on Thursday night.  The game is slated for a 7:00 p.m. tip, it will be streamed online on TheW.tv.