SAN FRANCISCO – On the receiving end of a chest bump from 252-pound Jimbo Lull, Josh Kunen smiled broadly. With one second left on the shot clock late in the second half against Santa Clara, the spindly freshman had just hit his first 3-pointer in over a year. Said Kunen: "It was sort of a Hail Mary."
 
The shot gave the University of San Francisco men's basketball team — losers of three straight — a 15-point lead and enough momentum to finish off an 80-61 win over Santa Clara. Kunen — who started the first 12 games of the season before coming off the bench the last four— recorded his second career double-double, and along with a career-high 25 points from Charles Minlend, was a driving force behind San Francisco's return to form.
 
"After that tough week, our main focus was really kind of getting back to the basics and getting back to defending, rebounding, take care of the ball," head coach Todd Golden said. "We hadn't done that for a while. We hadn't done it consistently across the board."
 
Over the course of the last three games — the first losing streak in Golden's first season at the helm — the Dons (12-6, 1-2 in WCC) struggled to find an offensive rhythm and consistency on the boards. 
 
Kunen, too, had struggled to find consistency. At 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, Kunen — a Sudanese import by way of Australia — had excelled on defense in his first season with the Dons, but hadn't found his footing on offense, though he showed flashes in a 16-point game against UC Davis and a double-double against Arizona State on Dec. 23. 
 
After scoring just 20 points in five games and being removed from the starting lineup last month, Kunen improved his footwork with director of analytics Jason Greenfield.
 
Golden had encouraged Kunen to be more assertive and aggressive, and despite going scoreless in three of the five games in which he came off the bench, he returned to the starting lineup on Thursday with newfound confidence.
 
"We knew that they were really going to pressure our ball handlers and he would be in position to make plays," Golden said. "Whether that was scoring or whether that was facilitating, I didn't really mind, and he did a little bit of both tonight, and we needed that. It was a huge lift."
 
On his first touch, Kunen hit a dribble drive hesitation layup with his right hand, spun back up the floor and smiled broadly. It was the first field goal on a 5-for-5 night where he scored 13 points and racked up a career-high 12 rebounds to go with a team-high-tying three assists.
 
"I was talking to him the whole time, just trying to tell him, 'You just keep playing,'" Minlend said. "He had a couple mistakes, and I'm like, 'Bro, you're good, just don't worry about it. You're a good player. Keep playing.'"
 
Kunen's ability to switch on defense allowed USF to get its best athletes onto the Broncos' shooters. Santa Clara (14-3, 1-1 WCC) went just 4-for-12 from 3-point range, far below their average 21.6 shots from beyond the arc per game. 
 
The Broncos — who came in averaging 80.2 points per game — shot just 32.8% from the field (19-for-58) in their lowest-scoring game of the season. The Dons out-rebounded Santa Clara 45-26, picked up five steals and racked up 12 blocks, led by five from point guard Jamaree Bouyea. 
 
During the three-game skid, Minlend said multiple times that he was frustrated that both he and the team hadn't been playing like they knew they could. He cited his own shot selection as particularly vexing. In the opening minutes, he was overly deferential, and his forced passes resulted in five of San Francisco's seven turnovers in the first eight minutes.
 
The Broncos erased an eight-point deficit and took their first lead of the game at 10:47 in the first, but San Francisco went on a 14-2 run, capped by a Bouyea spinning drive and finish in the lane with four minutes to go before the break.
 
The Dons' switching defense held Santa Clara to just two field goals in their next 11 tries, forcing four turnovers over a five-minute stretch as they grew their lead to 11 points. San Francisco led 35-23 at the half — their first lead at the break since Dec. 23 — and out-rebounded Santa Clara 29-12. Eleven of those came on the offensive glass, and five of those belonged to Kunen, leading to 12 second-chance points for San Francisco, compared to zero for Santa Clara.
 
"We need to play like that more," said Minlend, who reminded his team before the game that they needed to get back to their energetic style from non-conference play. "This is who we are."
 
The Dons' lead got as high as 19 in the second half behind an aggressive Minlend, who scored 13 points after halftime and didn't turn the ball over during the final 34 minutes.
 
"He was just absolutely phenomenal," Golden said. "He took the game over."
 
The Broncos, riding a series of calls against San Francisco, narrowed the lead to seven with under 14 minutes to go in regulation. Then, Minlend, driving right, took an elbow to the face from Josip Vrankic, and nearly lost the ball. He stumbled to his left and fell, but Bouyea was there to save a turnover. The ball swung around to Khalil Shabazz and then Kunen at the top of the arc. He drained an NBA 3-pointer to get the lead back to double digits.
 
An 11-3 run by the Dons saw the lead grow to 15, with Kunen hitting a pair of contested layups in the paint, securing his first double-double since Dec. 3 against Arizona State. After his second — with 9:14 to go — he spun up court without expression. It was, Golden said, a big growth moment.
 
"It's just a matter of time before he gets completely comfortable out there," Golden said. "You'll see him do that more often."
 
Said Kunen: "To see points on the scoreboard, and to know that I can have rebounding numbers … I'm heading in the right direction."
 

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The Dons will return to action on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Pacific Tigers at the Alex G. Spanos Center in Stockton. The game is slated for a 4:00 p.m. tip and will be televised on NBC Sports Bay Area with Barry Tompkins and Doug Christie on the call.  Due to the 49ers playoff game on Saturday, the Dons radio broadcast will be moved to KSFO 560-AM with Pat Olson and Jim Brovelli on the call.