Santa Clara University’s men’s basketball team will participate in the 2025 Acrisure Invitational in Palm Desert for the second year in a row. The Broncos, currently undefeated, are scheduled to play against another unbeaten team, Saint Louis University, on Thanksgiving afternoon. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network.
Ed Cohen and Dan Dickau will provide commentary from Acrisure Arena. Following Thursday’s matchup, Santa Clara is set to face either Minnesota or Stanford on Friday.
Saint Louis enters the event with a 5-0 record under coach Josh Schertz. The Billikens have one of the top offenses in the country, averaging 95.6 points per game and making an average of 11 three-pointers each contest. Their free throw shooting ranks third nationally at 83.2 percent, and they average nearly 45 rebounds per game.
The two teams have met five times before, most recently during last season’s Field of 68 Showcase in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Santa Clara secured an 85-78 win led by Adama-Alpha Bal’s 24 points.
Santa Clara recently received three votes in the AP Top 25 Poll for November 24. The program has not been ranked inside the top-25 since reaching No. 22 during the 1995-96 season.
In their latest outing, Santa Clara defeated Louisiana by a score of 80-43. Christian Hammond led with 19 points and four assists. Bukky Oboye contributed 13 points and five rebounds while Allen Graves added another double-digit performance with eleven points and five rebounds. Jake Ensminger recorded a season-high eleven rebounds alongside seven points and three assists.
With their current six-game winning streak, Santa Clara is off to its best start since going undefeated through twenty-one games during the regular season in 1968-69.
Defensively, Santa Clara leads the West Coast Conference (WCC) with an average of nearly seven blocks per game—ranking eighth nationally—and has posted back-to-back games with eleven blocked shots against Xavier and Nevada.
Christian Hammond is leading the team offensively at seventeen points per game after sitting out last season as a redshirt. “Christian Hammond is off to an outstanding start in his new starting role after redshirting last season,” according to team officials.
Jake Ensminger leads all college players in assist-to-turnover ratio with twenty-six assists to just one turnover over six games—a mark that tops national rankings.
Sophomore Bukky Oboye has emerged as a key defensive player with thirteen blocks this season—ranking him among national leaders—and has also contributed offensively with double-digit scoring efforts against both Nevada and Louisiana.
Santa Clara averages almost twenty assists per game (best in WCC) and ranks highly nationwide for both assist-to-turnover ratio and rebounding margin; they are especially effective on offensive boards with more than sixteen per contest.
Redshirt freshman Allen Graves has quickly become a significant contributor averaging over eight points and seven rebounds through his first six collegiate games while ranking among conference leaders for offensive rebounding.
The Broncos’ defense is holding opponents to fewer than sixty-two points per game—third-best in their conference—and limits opposing shooters to less than thirty-seven percent from the field as well as below twenty-eight percent from three-point range.
