Elijah Mahi scored 18 points and Christian Hammond added 15 to lead Santa Clara to an 87-68 rout of Xavier Monday night in Cincinnati.
Reserve Allen Graves had a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the Broncos (3-0) of the West Coast Conference, who never trailed and blew open the game late in the first half against their Big East opponent.
Roddie Anderson led all scorers with 29 points and Tre Carroll contributed 21 to lead Xavier (2-1), which lost for the first time this season and finished its season-opening three-game homestand with two wins.
Santa Clara dominated Xavier inside, outscoring the Musketeers, 52-22, in the paint. Ranked 19th nationally in rebounding in the early stages of the season, the Broncos continued to pound the glass Monday, winning the battle of the boards, 42-33.
Leading 24-18 with just under six minutes left in the opening 20 minutes, Bukky Oboye’s layup started a 10-0 run for Santa Clara, which dominated the glass 21-13 in the first half and outscored the Musketeers, 22-12, in the paint.
The Broncos finished the first half on a 15-2 spurt that put them up 19 at the half, 39-20, capped off by Hammond’s short jumper that hit the iron and fell through as the halftime buzzer sounded. Hammond led all scorers in the first half with 13 points.
Xavier scored the first five points of the second half before Santa Clara scored the next six to build the lead to 20 just over three minutes in.
After shooting a blistering 11-of-17 from 3-point range in the first half of their last game, a 74-69 win over Le Moyne last Thursday, the Musketeers couldn’t get a single shot to drop from long distance, taking only five from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes.
Overall, Xavier was just 8-for-24 in the first half and never recovered to make a run.
Anderson scored 25 of his 29 points in the final 20 minutes.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek, who coached at nearby Miami (Ohio) in Oxford for three seasons from 1993 through 1996.
The Broncos spoiled Richard Pitino’s first attempt at his 250th career win in his first season at Xavier.
–Field Level Media
