Jan. 17, 2009

Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. - Paige Mintun scored 17 points and freshman Cortney French made four three-pointers and scored a career-high 14 points as the UC Davis women's basketball team led all the way for a 68-56 Big West Conference women's basketball victory over UC Irvine before 587 fans at The Pavilion on Saturday night.

The Aggies moved into a tie with Cal State Fullerton for fourth place in the Big West, improving to 3-2 in the conference. UC Davis is 7-9 overall. UC Irvine, which lost its 13th straight game, is 3-15 overall and 0-4 in the league. Jovana Petrovic had a game-high 20 points for the Anteaters.

UC Davis was 11 of 24 from three-point territory, the third time this season it's made at least that many. Guard Genevieve Costello had a pair and scored 10 points while Samantha Meggison was one of six Aggies to convert from long distance and also had 10 points.

The Aggies never trailed in the game, holding UC Irvine without a basket for more than three minutes to start the contest while taking an early 6-0 lead. The Anteaters, who had four turnovers before attempting their first shot, battled back to a 9-7 deficit nearly seven minutes in but an 11-2 run by the Aggies staked them to a 20-9 lead just past the midway point.

UC Davis led 29-19 with 2:57 to go but Petrovic scored four points to help UC Irvine climb to within 29-25 at halftime.The Aggies shot 43 percent from three-point in the first half but just 28 percent overall, making 6 of 14 beyond the arc and only 2 of 15 from inside.

"When you shoot 28 percent and you're still leading you have to be pretty happy with that," said Aggie coach Sandy Simpson. "I thought in the second half we did a good job."

"We extended the lead to nine and 10 points a couple of times and UC Irvine did a great job coming back and hit some key shots," he said. "And then the third time we extended it we were able to kind of close the deal."

Lauren Juric's three-pointer with 15:51 to play helped the Aggies rebuild the lead to 39-30 while French's fourth trey made it 48-37 with 11 minutes left. UC Davis went up 54-39 three minutes later and let UC Irvine get to within single digits just once the rest of the way. The Aggies enjoyed their biggest lead at 68-52 with 1:35 left in the game.

UC Davis finished with 15 assists on 20 baskets, getting a game-high five from Mintun who also contributed a block. Juric had three dishes to go with a team-high seven rebounds while Kasey Riecks and Costello each had three steals for the Aggies who had 10 overall. The Aggies were also effective from the line, converting 17 of 20 attempts.

Guard Kirian Ishizaki had 15 points for the Anteaters who were just 3 of 14 from three-point territory. Leading scorer Rebecca Maessen was held to just eight points on 1-of-12 shooting. She was 1 of 7 from long distance but finished with four assists and two steals. Kim Barnes had a team-high seven rebounds.

UC Davis, which is currently playing with just eight players incuding five freshmen due to injuries, will return to the road for three consecutive games. The stretch begins with a 7 p.m. game on Thursday at UC Santa Barbara which leads the Big West with a 5-0 record. The Aggies will play at Cal Poly on Saturday with tipoff in San Luis Obispo set for 4 p.m. will play at Cal Poly on Saturday with tipoff in San Luis Obispo set for 4 p.m.