Jan. 5, 2009

Final Stats

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Ryan Silva scored a career-high 19 points, and Vince Oliver added 19 as UC Davis was defeated by Cal State Northridge, 84-81, in its Big West Conference opener Monday at The Matadome. The Aggies had a chance to send the game into overtime but missed a three-pointer as time expired. Joe Harden added 17 for UC Davis (5-9, 0-1 Big West), and David Carter finished with 10. Tremaine Townsend led Cal State Northridge (5-8, 2-1 Big West) with 25 points.

UC Davis nearly erased a six-point deficit with 40 seconds remaining. Silva, who made a career-high five three-pointers, connected for his final trey with 26 seconds left to cut the deficit to 82-79. The sophomore then stole the ball on the next possession and fed Mark Payne for a layup to make it 82-81 with 17 seconds remaining. At the other end, Josh Jenkins made two free throws to give the Matadors a three-point lead, and Kyle Brucculeri's three-pointer from the left wing misfired as time expired.

Earlier in the second half, the Aggies went on an 11-0 run to erase an eight-point deficit before the Matadors responded with an 8-0 run of their own to regain the lead at 61-56 with 11:08 to play. CSUN never trailed again and led by as much as 78-71 with 1:02 remaining.

"It was a highly-competitive game,' said UC Davis head coach Gary Stewart. "You have to credit Cal State Northridge. They made plays, but so did we. We competed really well down the stretch."

UC Davis trailed 8-6 a little more than three minutes into the game before going on an 8-0 run. Adam Malik started it with a three-pointer, and Silva ended it with a trey at the 15:04 mark as the Aggies led 14-8. The Matadors countered with an 8-0 run and regained a two-point lead with 11:57 remaining in the half.

The Aggies quickly took the lead back on an Oliver trey. That started an 11-2 run in which the senior would account for seven points, and UC Davis owned a 25-18 advantage with 8:07 left in he half. Cal State Northridge would control much of the remainder of the half by going on a 25-9 blitz over the next seven minutes and led 47-39 at the break.

Silva scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. His previous career-high was 17 earlier in the season against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dominic Calegari finished with seven points and a team-high seven rebounds. The junior also dished out a career-high six assists.

For the game, Cal State Northridge shot 52 percent compared to the Aggies' 44 percent. The Matadors shot 68 percent in the first half but cooled off to under 38 percent in the second half.

UC Davis is next in action Thursday night when it begins a two-game homestand against UC Riverside at 7 p.m. at The Pavilion.