Dec. 4, 2009
Complete UC Davis game notes in PDF Format 
Complete Denver game notes in PDF Format
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Game 8
Denver (1-4) at UC Davis (4-3)
Dec. 5, 3 p.m. The Pavilion (6,100) KDVS (90.3 FM) www.ucdavisaggies.com
OPENING TIPS
UC Davis looks to run its winning streak to three games when it completes a busy week of basketball before breaking for final exams next week... The Aggies are coming off wins over West Coast Conference members Saint Mary's and Santa Clara, giving them a 3-1 road record this season... UC Davis is looking for a three-game winning streak for the first time since capturing seven straight during the 2007-08 season... W Kasey Riecks led the Aggies with 14 points at Santa Clara, pacing the team in scoring for the second time this season... Through seven games, they've had five different players post team-high scoring honors... Saturday's game is part of the "Pack the Pavilion" promotion which includes a 1 p.m. men's basketball game between UC Davis and Seattle... Thursday's win was the 210th career victory for HEAD COACH Sandy Simpson, the program's winningest coach... The Aggies shot 43.9 percent from the field overall at Santa Clara but were especially effective from inside the arc where they made 58.6 percent (17 of 29).
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. DENVER
The Aggies and Pioneers are playing for just the second time overall and for the second year in a row... The teams met on Nov. 21, 2008 in Denver with the Pioneers taking a 35-29 lead on their way to a 64-50 win... P Lisa Peterson scored 10 points to lead UC Davis, marking her second straight double-digit game... G ANDI MASON had 11 points to pace Denver... The teams combined for 47 turnovers, 23 of them by UC Davis.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE PIONEERS
Denver has lost three straight games - all on the road - after splitting a pair of home games to start the season... The Pioneers haven't scored more than 57 points during the three-game trip, including losing 84-57 at Colorado on Wednesday... F KAETLYN MURDOCH scored a game-high 23 points in the defeat while F BRIANNA CULBERSON had 12 and F ASHLEY ROBINSON pitched in with 11... Colorado led 38-28 at halftime before pulling away in the second half... Murdoch (15.2), BRITTANI RICE (13.6) and Culberson (11.6) are each averaging double-figure points for Denver while Murdoch (6.8), Culberson (6.6) and Robinson (6.6) are nearly indentical in rebounds... The Pioneers are shooting a healthy 47.0 percent from the field, but just 29.3 percent from three-point territory... They are holding opponents to less than 40 percent shooting overall... Denver is also being slightly outrebounded (34.4-31.4).
LAST GAME: UC DAVIS 74, SANTA CLARA 56
W Kasey Riecks scored 14 points to lead three Aggies in double figures, and UC Davis opened a 25-point first-half lead as it cruised to a 74-56 win over host Santa Clara in a nonconference women's basketball game on Thursday night at the Leavey Center... W Heidi Heintz and W Samantha Meggison each had 12 points for UC Davis... P LENA GIPSON tallied 16 points and had seven rebounds for the Broncos who dropped their fifth straight game to fall to 1-5... UC Davis never trailed in the game, outscoring Santa Clara 23-3 over a 10-minute span of the first half to turn a 3-3 tie into a sizeable 26-6 lead with 8 minutes, 8 seconds remaining... The lead continued to swell, reaching 36-11 with 4:41 left in the half before settling at 40-18 at intermission... The Aggies took the big lead on the heels of good rebounding, solid defense and effective shooting. They outrebounded an opponent (42-33 overall) for the first time this season, grabbing nine offensive boards in the first half while picking up six steals on 10 Broncos turnovers... Heintz and Meggison provided much of the offensive punch over the first 20 minutes, each scoring 10 points... Meggison's scoring came mostly from the free throw line where she made 7 of 10 while earning several trips to the stripe from hustle rebounding... Heintz had six boards in the first 20 minutes, half of them from the offensive glass... UC Davis swelled the lead to as much as 29 points twice in the second half and it remained at least 20 points until the Broncos were able to bring it to 18 in the final minute of the game.
UC DAVIS SWEEPS THROUGH WCC
The Aggies went 3-0 against the West Coast Conference this season, extending their winning streak against the league to six games dating back to the start of last season... UC Davis won this year's matchups against San Francisco, Saint Mary's and Santa Clara by an average of 17.3 ppg. and didn't trail in the second half during any of the games... The Aggies also had a leading scorer in each victory with W Cortney French scoring 14 against USF, W Heidi Heintz picking up 15 at Saint Mary's and W Kasey Riecks tallying 14 at Santa Clara.
AGGIES OUTREBOUND FIRST OPPONENT OF THE YEAR
UC Davis posted a 42-33 advantage on the boards against Santa Clara on Thursday night, the first time they've outrebounded a foe this season... The closest the Aggies had come was a 29-29 tie in the opener at Seattle... They also posted 18 offensive rebounds, well more than the 10 they had at Washington State for their previous best.
DEFENSE OFF TO A GOOD START
UC Davis finished third in the Big West last year in scoring defense at 59.3 ppg and is off to a nearly identical start this year, allowing just 59.1 ppg through its first seven matchups... The Aggies are the only Big West team below 60.0 ppg and ranked 100th nationally at the start of the week.
FRESNCH IS INSTANT OFFENSE
W Cortney French is a three-point specialist for the Aggies and has the ability to put up points in a hurry when she comes off the bench... French, whose 12 treys leads the team, has 13 field goals overall... But her production is very much noted when reviewing her points per 40 minutes of court time... She's averaging 24.1 points over that span, well ahead of the next best total on the team (18.1, P Paige Mintun).
RIECKS SETS CAREER MARK AT SEATTLE
W Kasey Riecks got her 2009-10 season off to a good start by canning a career-high 5 3-pters during the Aggies' season-opening win at Seattle... She scored a career-best 21 points, eclipsing her previous-highs of four treys against Cal Poly and 17 points versus visiting Cal State Fullerton, both last year... Riecks, who has started each of her 35 career games, made her first three shots from beyond the arc against Seattle.
STEP RIGHT UP
UC Davis has 12 active players on its roster and uses each of them every game, a trend not lost on HEAD COACH Sandy Simpson who knows that each player has a role and must be ready to step up at any time... So far, that's proven true... Through seven games, five different players have led the team in scoring with only W Kasey Riecks and P Paige Mintun doing it more than once... Five different Aggies have led (or tied for the team lead) in rebounding as well... As for assists? Well, six players have earned that honor so far.
DONAGHE GETS EXTRA YEAR
W Haylee Donaghe was granted a clock extension in October 2008 by the NCAA due to injuries earlier in her Aggie career... That gave her two years of eligibility at the time but, unfortunately, a knee injury suffered at South Dakota State last December cut short one of those seasons... Donaghe completed her undergraduate degree in exercise biology in June 2008 and is currently enrolled in graduate studies at UC Davis, expecting to graduate with her master's degree in exercise biology next spring.
DONAGHE ON 1,000-POINT WATCH
W HALEY DONAGHE needs 266 points to become the 14th player in program history - and the first since W Jessica Campbell (1,413) and P Ellen Porshneva (1,251) both did it two seasons ago... Donaghe needs to average 10.2 points over UC Davis 29 games in order to reach the mileston... She averaged 10.3 ppg in 2006-07 and 12.3 ppg in 2007-08 and was at an 11.6 ppg clip last year before being injured... Donaghe is also No. 7 all-time with 160 steals, passing former C AIMEE CONNER (1989-93) who had 158 after garnering four last game... She is also tied for third for most steals in game with 9, gaining those in the opener at Southern Utah last season.
SIMPSON BECOMES ALL-TIME WINS LEADER
With a 53-50 win at Cal State Northridge last Mar. 4, Head coach Sandy Simpson became the all-times win leader at UC Davis with 206... He owns a career mark in 13 seasons of 210-136 (.607)... He picked up his 200th career win on Jan. 4 with an 86-66 victory over visiting Cal State Northridge... Simpson surpassed former coach JORJA HOEHN (1988-95, 96-97) who amassed a 205-51 (.801) record during her impressive tenure... Simpson served as an assistant coach under Hoehn as well as mentor PAM GILL-FISHER (1975-79, 81-86, 87-88) who posted 164 career victories.
HALL OF FAMERS ON STAFF
The Aggies are fortunate to have a talented staff to support head coach Sandy Simpson... Associate head coach Jennifer Gross, now in her 6th year, and administrative assistant Therese Cardinet, are both members of the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame... Gross helped lead UC Davis to a 29-3 record and third-place NCAA Div. II finish during 1996-97 and still holds the program's career assist mark with 448... Cardinet, in her 22nd year with the program, had 846 points, 182 assists and 329 rebounds during her career in the late 1970's.
UC DAVIS SCORES BIG ON ALL-BIG WEST TEAMS
The Aggies were well-represented on the All-Big West Conference teams last year, despite finishing 7-9 in league and in fifth place... P Paige Mintun, who led the team in scoring (13.0 ppg), rebounding (6.4 rpg) and blocks (31), was named to the All-BWC first team... W Lauren Juric, who canned 35 three-pointers, was named the Big West Freshman of the Year... W Kasey Riecks, who started all 29 games, was selected to the All-Freshman team... She and Juric were also tabbed honorable mention all-league. UC DAVIS TO BE TESTED WITH SCHEDULE
The Aggies will face a 2009-10 schedule that features teams from the Big XII, Pac-10 and Big East conferences during a rugged nonconference slate... Among the teams they will face are preseason No. 2 Stanford (Nov. 22), NCAA Tournament team Kansas State (Dec. 29) and Women's National Invitational Tournament participant Creighton (Nov. 27)... The Aggies will also battle rival UC Santa Barbara twice during the league season... The Gauchos advanced to last year's NCAA postseason with the Big West's automatic berth... UC Riverside, another Big West foe, earned a spot in the WNIT.
