Aggies Well Represented On All-Conference Team

March 9, 2009

IRVINE, Calif. - The Big West Conference announced its men's basketball All-Conference honors Monday, and UC Davis had three players earn recognition. Vince Oliver has become the first Aggie to receive First Team All-Big West honors and is joined by teammates Joe Harden and Mark Payne on the Second Team. UC Davis was the only team to put multiple players in the first two tiers of honors. The remaining eight conference teams had one player on either the First or Second Teams.

Oliver leads UC Davis with 15.5 points per game and has scored 464 points during his senior season. He finished the regular season fourth in the Big West in scoring and has scored 20 or more points in seven games. Two of those games were 30-plus performances. The senior averaged 18.4 points in Big West games, ranking second in the conference in that category. Oliver is also the first Aggie to received Big West Player of the Week honors and is third on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,494 points.

Harden finished just behind Oliver in scoring average with 14.9 points per game and is fifth in the Big West. He also ranks third in the conference with 7.2 rebounds per game. He scored in double figures in all but four of the Aggies' 30 games and posted five double-doubles, a mark that tied him for second in the Big West. Over the final seven games, Harden averaged 18.0 points. The senior is also adding to a UC Davis record with 158 free throws made.

Payne is averaging 10.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and leads the Aggies in virtually every other category including field-goal percentage (.678), minutes per game (33.0), assists (5.0), steals (1.5) and blocks (0.6). Payne is 29th in the nation with a 2.34 assist/turnover ratio and 39th in assists per game. The sophomore adds to his Big West hardware after being named Freshman of the Year in 2008.

UC Davis will take on UC Irvine Wednesday evening in the first round of the Big West Tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center. The game can be heard live on KFSG 1690-AM as well as at www.ucdavisaggies.com.

2008-09 Big West Men's Basketball All-Conference Team
First Team
Josh Akognon (Cal State Fullerton)
Larry Anderson (Long Beach State)
Kyle Austin (UC Riverside)
Chris Devine (UC Santa Barbara)
Vince Oliver (UC Davis)
Tremaine Townsend (Cal State Northridge)

Second Team
Joe Harden (UC Davis)
Michael Kirby (Pacific)
Mark Payne (UC Davis)
Titus Shelton (Cal Poly)
Eric Wise (UC Irvine)