March 4, 2009
Game Notes
DAVIS, Calif. - The UC Davis men's basketball team will play its regular season finale Thursday night when it hosts Cal State Northridge at The Pavilion at 7 p.m. The pivotal Big West Conference match-up will be a part of Senior Night as five Aggies will be honored prior to the game. All of the action is available on KFSG 1690-AM with video and audio available at www.ucdavisaggies.com.
UC Davis (12-17, 7-8 Big West) is coming off a 66-64 loss at UC Santa Barbara last Saturday and will be seeking to snap a three-game losing streak Thursday night. Vince Oliver continues to lead the Aggies with 15.6 points per game while Joe Harden is averaging 15.0.
Cal State Northridge enters the game with a 14-12 record and is in first place in the Big West at 10-4. The Matadors are coming off a 95-74 win on Saturday against Long Beach State in what was a battle between Big West co-leaders. Overall, CSUN has won eight of its past 10 games. The Matadors are 13-7 since opening the season 1-6. Senior Tremaine Townsend is averaging 11.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
CSUN leads the all-time series 13-6. The Matadors have won four straight and nine of the last 10. That includes an 84-81 victory on Jan. 5 in Northridge. Oliver and Ryan Silva each led UC Davis with 19 points in the loss. Townsend scored a game-high 25 points for CSUN.
The Matadors hold a one-game lead over second-place Long Beach State (9-5). Pacific is third in the conference at 9-6, followed by UC Riverside (7-7). UC Davis is tied with Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine for fifth-place, and UC Santa Barbara is in eighth at 6-8.
The list of Aggie seniors who will be playing their final home game includes Michael Boone, Kyle Brucculeri, David Carter, Nathan Clark and Oliver. Collectively, they have played in 454 games and started 243 throughout their Aggie careers. In addition, the five have scored a total of 3,141 points in a UC Davis uniform.
UC Davis is the only Big West team to finish conference play on Thursday. Final seeding for next week's Big West Tournament won't be determined until the remaining eight conference teams play their final games on Saturday.
