Nov. 18, 2007

HONOLULU, Hawaii - Tournament MVP Anna Harp scored 21 points on Sunday, leading four Aggies in double figures, as the undefeated UC Davis women's basketball team used a decisive 16-2 run in the second half to beat Washington 69-58 and claim the championship of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Classic at the Stan Sherriff Center.

UC Davis, which is playing its first official season as a member of NCAA Division I, improved to 4-0 after also beating Northern Arizona and host Hawaii on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Huskies, who last season advanced to the NCAA Tournament, fell to 1-4. Jess McCormack scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds to lead Washington.

UC Davis improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2001-02 when it started 7-0 on its way to an 18-9 record. The victory was also the program's first over a Pac-10 Conference member since the 1977-78 season when the Aggies beat Stanford twice.

The Aggies got balanced scoring for the second straight game with Jessica Campbell (15 points), Haylee Donaghe (12) and Heather Bates (11) joining Harp in double figures. Bates added eight rebounds for UC Davis, which tied the taller Huskies with 44 boards.

Harp was joined on the all-tournament team by Bates and Campbell, along with McCormack, Tanya Smith of Hawaii and Laura Dinkins of Northern Arizona.

UC Davis, which has yet to win any of its first four games by fewer than 11 points, used strong defense to beat the Huskies. Washington shot just 28.8 percent, including 25.7 percent (9 of 35) from three-point territory, and was the fourth consecutive Aggie opponent to be held to less than 33 percent from the field. The Huskies missed their first 10 shots of the game, not getting on the scoreboard until Emily Florence's three-pointer four minutes into the game.

The first half featured two ties and eight lead changes before Harp's basket in the paint with 6 minutes, 38 seconds left gave UC Davis a 21-20 lead. Campbell's basket with two minutes to go made it 29-22 with the Aggies maintaining the lead until taking a 32-26 lead into halftime.

Back-to-back treys by Sami Whitcomb in the opening minute of the second half tied it 32-32 before Bates answered with one of her own to give the lead back to the Aggies at 35-32. UC Davis led by as many a five points before a pair of free throws from Katelan Redmon with 11:27 left put Washington in front 43-42.

UC Davis, though, scored 16 of the game's next 18 points, starting with a trey from Harp to go up 58-45 with 6:40 remaining. Harp had seven points during the run while Ellen Porshneva and Campbell each had four, and Bates three. The Huskies rallied to within 60-55 with three minutes remaining but the Aggies scored the next four points to go up by nine points and then made five free throws down the stretch to record the win.

"I thought tonight we had to make more adjustments defensively," said UC Davis coach Sandy Simpson. "The kids implemented (the changes) without us ever having practiced them. We implemented them on the fly and that tells me that we're going to be able to play this defense successfully throughout the year. because ventually we'll see everything and then they'll just draw on their memory bank (on how to play)."

UC Davis shot just 37.1 percent from the field and was only 4 of 20 from long distance but the Aggies had just 10 turnovers in the game, including only three after halftime. Harp scored nine of her points from the line while she and Bates each made a pair of three-pointers.

Simpson said the tournament championship and a win over a strong Pac-10 team will help others take notice of the Aggies' growing Division I program.

"We've believed in ourselves for a long time," said Simpson. "This the type of thing with recruiting and with the perceptions of people outside of Davis, California, is really going to help validate our program."

Whitcomb contributed 12 points for Washington while Redmon had 11.

Hawaii finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, Washington was 1-2 and Northern Arizona went 0-3.

UC Davis will take a break for the Thanksgiving holiday before returning to the court to host Portland State at The Pavilion on Nov. 27.