Hartsock, Davies pace BYU to easy win over Santa Clara
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Noah Hartsock scored 21 points and Brandon Davies 20 to lead Brigham Young to an 82-67 victory over Santa Clara on Saturday, the Broncos’ 15th consecutive loss.
The Cougars (23-6, 11-3 West Coast) won their fifth consecutive game to remain in the running for one of the top two seeds in the conference tournament — which would mean an automatic berth into the semifinals.
Brandon Clark and Niyi Harrison scored 19 points each to lead Santa Clara (8-19, 0-14), which extended its school-record losing streak.
BYU pulled away by dominating Santa Clara in the paint. The Cougars took most of their shots from in close on their way to shooting a season-high 59 percent from the field.
Next up for BYU is a critical game Thursday at Gonzaga, one of the other contenders for the top two seeds.
■ Iona 90, UNR 84 — At New Rochelle, N.Y., Lamont Jones scored 18 points as the Gaels outlasted the Wolf Pack in a BracketBusters game.
Iona (22-6) won its fourth straight. The Gaels, atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, got balanced scoring from Jones, Michael Glover (15 points), Scott Machado and Sean Armand (13 apiece), and a boost from Randy Dezouvre, who came off the bench to score 17 points.
But the Gaels, up 47-46 at halftime, couldn’t shake UNR (22-5), which leads the Western Athletic Conference. Olek Czyz scored 28 points and Deonte Burton 21. Dario Hunt had 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Trailing 71-58 midway through the second half, UNR whittled the deficit to 82-77 with 4:04 left. But Dezouvre hit a jumper, and Machado made a layup and two free throws. Jones’ two foul shots with 28 seconds left clinched the win.