SAN FRANCISCO – A 16-3 run midway through the first quarter gave the University of San Francisco women's basketball team all the separation it would need as they blasted Santa Clara 87-64 on Saturday afternoon at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center. Ioanna Krimili finished with 20 points and set the USF single season record for 3-point field goals with her 78^th of the season.

The 23-point win by USF (13-9, 9-7 WCC) is the tied for second largest win over the Broncos in the series history.  Just behind the 91-64 win over the Broncos in the 1998-99 season. USF led by as much as 37 points midway through the fourth quarter and led for over 38 minutes. For the Day, the Dons shot 57.4 percent from the field going 31-for-54.  From 3-point range, USF was even better, connecting on 58.3 percent of their attempts going 14-for-24. 
 
Santa Clara (13-9, 9-7 WCC) entered the day ahead of the Dons in the newly released WCC/KenPom standings.  That should change after the Dons held the Broncos to 64 points – 24 of that coming against USF's reserves late in the game.
 
The Broncos finished with two players in double figures with Lana Hollingsworth and Ashlee Maldonado scoring 10 each.  Santa Clara's leading three leading scorers were all held to single digits. For the afternoon, SCU shot 35.4 percent from the floor and were 26.1 percent from 3-point range.  
 
"I thought we played really, really well," said head coach Molly Goodenbour. "We came out from the get go with a lot of purpose and we shared the ball well. We defended well.  We took their top three players out of their comfort level and made them work for all their points and forced them to hit tough shots. It was fun to watch, mostly that's what I did, which has been great this year.  The girls have really taken ownership of the court, playing with confidence, sharing the ball and shooting the ball, they are having fun, it's really fun to coach."
 
USF finished with four players in double figures led by Krimili's game-high 20 points. It is her 11^th 20-point game of the season; the Dons are now 8-3 when she scores 20 or more. Joining her in double figures was Amalie Langer with 16 points.  Off the bench, Marta Galic had 17 and Kia Vaalavirta had 11.
 
The redshirt freshman entered the game third all-time.  She needed two to tie Shay Rollins for second most in a season, and five to tie Rollins for the lead.  Krimili was 4-for-4 in the first half and broke the record with back-to-back 3-point field goals early in the third quarter, the record breaking three coming at the 8:11 mark.  Krimili finished 6-for-14 from the floor but was 6-for-8 from beyond the arc.
 
Over all, the Dons were tremendous from 3-point range. USF had five players make at least one three. In the third quarter when the Dons built up their tremendous lead, they were 6-for-8 from 3-point range.
 
"We shot the 3-point tremendously, and that's because of how we shared the ball," said Goodenbour on the Dons 3-point explosion. "We made the extra pass and found the open man and made a pass that put us in a good shooting rhythm. We are hard to guard when we do that."
 
Langer set the tone early for the Dons. The redshirt sophomore guard had seven of her points in the first quarter. If she wasn't scoring, she found the open player, as three of her five assists came in the first period. The Broncos tied the game at 2-2 on a field goal by Ashley Herlihy – that was the only time the game was tied.  A Hoskova layup before the horn had the Dons up 29-15 at the end of the first.
 
The half ended with USF out front 45-28. The Dons were 6-for-12 from 3-point range in the first half, but also owned the paint. USF had 24 points inside the key.  With Hoskova penetrating to finish with six of her nine points.
 
The second half belonged to USF, a 10-0 run in the fourth was all the Broncos could muster. However, the game was already over by that point.  A big factor in the Broncos inability to get anything going was the Dons rebounding.  USF finished the day with 34 rebounds – 32 coming on the defensive side of the ball. Lucija Kostic was the game's leading rebounder.  She finished with 12 rebounds, she also had five assists, two steals and a block in an all-around excellent afternoon.  
 
"We are in a good place and the next two games should be a fun, we've got a challenge ahead of us but we are looking forward to it."
 
USF will return to action on Thursday when they host the San Diego Toreros.  Thursday's game is scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. tip and will be streamed on the WCC Network with George Devine handling the play-by-play duties.