Santa Clara University’s men’s basketball team improved its record to 6-0 after defeating Louisiana 80-43 at the Leavey Center on Friday night. The Broncos’ strong defense limited the Ragin’ Cajuns to 25 percent shooting and helped secure a plus-15 advantage in rebounds. Santa Clara also recorded 20 assists on 30 made field goals.
Christian Hammond led all scorers with 19 points. Bukky Oboye added 13 points, while Allen Graves scored 11. Jake Ensminger contributed seven points, a season-high 11 rebounds, three assists, and no turnovers.
The Broncos began the game with a 10-2 lead and extended it to a 16-2 advantage during an early run. By halftime, Santa Clara led Louisiana by a score of 38-15. The team forced eight first-half turnovers and committed only three themselves.
In the second half, Santa Clara used another run to increase their lead to as much as 35 points. Senior walk-on Brendan Yarusso made his first career field goal late in the game, hitting a three-pointer that gave the Broncos their largest margin of victory for the night.
Santa Clara finished shooting at a rate of 42 percent from the field while holding Louisiana to just one three-point basket out of nine attempts. Nearly half of Louisiana’s points came from free throws.
Among individual performances, Christian Hammond has scored at least twelve points in each game this season. Ensminger recorded his twelfth career double-digit rebound game and continues to lead nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, now at 26:0 after dishing out three more assists without a turnover. Oboye set a season high with five rebounds and contributed two blocks and one steal in seventeen minutes on the court. Graves matched his season-best point total and added five rebounds along with three blocks.
Other contributors included KJ Cochran with nine points and Sash Gavalyugov who achieved personal bests in both rebounds (seven) and assists (five). Brenton Knapper returned from injury to start for Santa Clara, finishing with five points, three steals, and two assists.
The Broncos have now won the rebounding battle in all six games this year, pulling down twenty-one offensive boards against Louisiana’s thirty total rebounds. The team’s defensive effort held Louisiana to forty-three total points—the fewest allowed by Santa Clara or any West Coast Conference team so far this season—and only fifteen first-half points for their opponent.
With this win, Santa Clara evened its all-time series against Louisiana at one victory apiece.
The Broncos will travel next week for the Acrisure Invitational tournament in Southern California from November 27–29. Their opening matchup is scheduled against Saint Louis on Thanksgiving Day at 4:00 p.m., which will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
