Jan. 24, 2009

Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. - Cal Poly outscored UC Davis 23-5 over the final nine minutes to overcome a 16-point deficit and defeat the Aggies, 77-75, in a Big West Conference game Saturday night at The Pavilion. Joe Harden led UC Davis with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Dominic Calegari added 16, and Kyle Brucculeri came off the bench with four three-pointers and 13 points. Cal Poly's Lorenzo Keeler led all scorers with 19 points.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak by the Aggies, who dropped to 9-11 overall and 4-3 in the Big West. Cal Poly improved to 5-12 and 2-5 in the conference.

UC Davis led by as many as 12 points in the first half before settling for a 41-37 advantage at the break. The Aggies pushed the lead back into double-figures four minutes into the second half before the Mustangs pulled within 54-50 with 14:30 to play.

The Aggies responded with a 16-4 run, which included a pair of treys by Brucculeri. The final bucket of the run was a breakaway layup by Mark Payne to give UC Davis a 70-54 lead at the 9:09 mark.

From that point, Cal Poly would dominate. The Mustangs ran off 10 straight points in less than three minutes to make it 70-64 with 6:26 remaining. Calegari made two free throws at the 5:28 mark, but Cal Poly ran off nine more points. A Chaz Thomas three-pointer with 1:19 left gave the Mustangs their first lead at 73-72.

UC Davis took the lead back on a layup by Vince Oliver with 1:00 remaining, but the lead shifted back to Cal Poly 11 seconds later on another Thomas trey to make it 76-74. Each team traded a free throw with just under thirty seconds remaining before an off-balance three-pointer by Oliver misfired as time expired.

Oliver finished with 11 points, and Payne scored 10 to go along with five assists and four rebounds. UC Davis shot 48 percent from the field compared to 51 percent for Cal Poly. Each team committed 10 turnovers.

UC Davis is back in action Jan. 31 when it hosts Pacific at 7 p.m.