Sam Houston defeats Santa Clara 58-56 in NIT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Qua Grant had 21 points in Sam Houston's 58-56 victory against Santa Clara on Wednesday night in the first round of the NIT.

Grant had six assists for the Bearkats (26-7). Kaosi Ezeagu added 10 points while finishing 5 of 6 from the floor, and he also had five rebounds. Kian Scroggins shot 3 of 3 from the field to finish with seven points. It was the seventh win in a row for the Bearkats.

Santa Clara's Jaden Bediako made two free throws to make it 56-all with 1:31 to play but Cameron Huefner answered pull=up floater in the lane 28 seconds later that capped the scoring. Christoph Tilly missed a potential tying layup attempt in the closing seconds.

Brandin Podziemski led the Broncos (23-10) in scoring, finishing with 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Christoph Tilly added 16 points and eight rebounds for Santa Clara. In addition, Carlos Stewart finished with 10 points and two steals.

The Broncos won seven straight games before ending their season with back-to-back losses

Grant put up 13 points in the first half for Sam Houston, who led 30-26 at halftime. Sam Houston took the lead for good with 1:02 left in the second half on a jump shot from Cameron Huefner to make it a 58-56 game.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.