Getting back to Cup remains his ultimate goal, but he wont

Spokane, WA (SportsNetwork.com) - The sixth-ranked team in the nation seeks a ninth straight win on Saturday, as the Gonzaga Bulldogs host the Santa Clara Broncos in West Coast Conference action. The Bulldogs kicked off the 2014-15 campaign with seven consecutive wins before losing to third-ranked Arizona on the road in Tucson the first week of December by a score of 66-63 in overtime. Since then Gonzaga has been untouchable, beginning the WCC campaign with a convincing 87-80 win at BYU, followed by two more conference road victories versus San Diego and Portland. Two nights ago, the Bulldogs made quick work of San Francisco in the home conference opener, 88-57. While Gonzaga is tied with Saint Marys-CA for the top spot in the league standings at 4-0, the Broncos are in the bottom half of the WCC with two wins in five opportunities. Also in action on Thursday night, Santa Clara was dealt a 78-61 defeat by Portland in Oregon, marking the second loss in the last three outings for the Broncos. Gonzaga leads the Broncos by a count of 52-30 in the all-time series dating back more than a half century. Aside from an 85-71 triumph in 2011, Santa Clara has come out on the short end of every meeting since 2008. In fact, the Bulldogs have won eight straight and 30 of the last 32 battles between the programs. The Broncos shot an impressive 54.2 percent from the field in the second half of their meeting against Portland a few nights back, but that was only after converting a mere 34.6 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Considering the Pilots connected on 53.2 percent from the floor overall, there was little chance the visitors would come out ahead. Scoring in double figures for Santa Clara were Jalen Richard and Denzel Johnson with 13 points apiece, followed by Nate Kratch and Jared Brownridge who both tallied 10 points in the losing cause. Although he failed to score in double figures the last time out, Brandon Clark is still the top scorer overall for the Broncos with 15.3 ppg and is also first with 63 assists. However, the team does suffer sometimes when he has the ball in his hands due to his field goal shooting which falls below 35 percent accuracy. Brownridge checks in with another 13.8 ppg, thanks to an impressive 45.0 percent behind the 3-point line, which means he and Clark combine for almost half the programs 61.5 ppg these days. The Bulldogs trailed by four points about six minutes into the meeting with San Francisco on Thursday, but there was little reason to worry as the hosts shot 52.5 percent from the field and beat the Dons on the glass by a 39-26 margin, en route to the 31-point victory. Kevin Pangos tallied 17 points and five assists, Przemek Karnowski 16 points, Kyle Wiltjer 15 and reserve Silas Melson 10 points in just 16 minutes of action as he converted 3-of-4 shots behind the 3-point line. Once again Gonzaga is being built on team play, balanced scoring and solid defense, which is why the team is 8-0 at home in 2014-15. Wiltjer accounts for a team-best 16.4 ppg based on 42.6 percent shooting from the floor, followed by Pangos (12.4 ppg), Byron Wesley (11.6 ppg) and Karnowski (10.9 ppg), the latter producing 6.2 rpg to pace the program in that department and help push the Bulldogs to a rebounding advantage just a shade under 10 per outing as they outscore the competition by a 21.7 ppg margin. Discount Shoes For Sale . - While a fast-paced offence has become more of a fixture in recent years, the San Antonio Spurs can still grind out games when needed. Cheap Shoes Free Shipping . 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Both had to wait out a rain interruption lasting nearly five hours before taking comprehensive third-round victories to join Carling Bassett-Seguso (1983, 1986), Patricia Hy-Boulais (1996-97) and Daniel Nestor (1999) as Canadians who made it into the second week of a major. ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- If Sam Hornish Jr. could do it over, he would be more selective in the way he made the jump from open-wheel racing to NASCAR six years ago. Now, Hornish understands the value of having the right ride. So he relishes his shot to win in the Nationwide series this year -- even if those chances arent coming every week. Hornish, the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner and a three-time series champion in Indy-style racing, is racing a part-time Nationwide schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014. Hes splitting the No. 54 car with Sprint Cup series star Kyle Busch, so hell only get to race when Busch cant. His next opportunity is Saturdays race at Road America, a scenic 4-mile road course that winds through the tree-lined hills of central Wisconsin. "There were a lot of people that had negative comments about the fact that I was running a part-time schedule," Hornish said. "But you need to look at what the 54 has done over the past couple of years, what the strength of the JGR organization is. I feel like Id rather have seven shots at it with an opportunity to win every time, rather than (a full schedule) and knowing that if I come home 10th, everybody on the team is going to be happy." Hornish took the part-time ride at Gibbs this year after losing his Nationwide ride at Team Penske; despite his second-place finish to Austin Dillon in the Nationwide drivers championship standings in 2013, his sponsorship dried up and the team didnt have a place for him. In three Nationwide races this year -- two in the No. 54 car and one in the No. 20 car -- he has a victory at Iowa, a second-place finish last week at Michigan and a fifth-place finish at Talladega. And he likes his chhances at Road America, where he has finished fifth each of the past two years.dddddddddddd Its one of Hornishs favourite tracks, one he visited as a fan on family vacations and raced on in open-wheel cars early in his career. "I remember sitting down in Turn 5 as a kid watching the Indy car race," Hornish says. "Any time you can go back to a place that you have these happy childhood memories from, from a vacation or whatever it happened to be, thats always a good thing." A win at Road America would add to the already compelling case Hornish is making for another shot at the top-tier Sprint Cup series, where hes still fighting the stigma of the disappointing first impression he made from 2008 to 2010. Getting back to Cup remains his ultimate goal, but he wont necessarily take any opportunity that comes his way. "Im going to be a little more choosy about that at this point in time, because I know that I cant carry the car," Hornish said. "Nobody can. You can put even the best drivers in the Cup series in a car thats not capable of running in the top 15, and they might get a 12th out of it a day here and there. But thats not enough to keep yourself where you want to be or to move up to that next ride." For now, Hornish wants to make the most of the opportunities he has while appreciating the additional time he has at home with his wife and three kids -- a different kind of full-time schedule. "I went to being kind of a glorified limo driver or taxi driver, taking kids here and there," Hornish says. "But its awesome. Theres been so many part of this year that I would have heard about, instead of being able to experience." ' ' '