Men's Basketball 11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM

UC Davis Drops Season Opener vs. FAU, 70-63

Nov. 12, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. - The UC Davis men's basketball team dropped a 70-63 contest vs. the Florida Atlantic Owls in their first regular season game Friday, at the Athletes in Action Classic hosted by the University of Portland. After trailing the entire first half, the Aggies fought back to take a second half lead, before a 10-0 run for FAU gave the Owls the lead for good.

Senior Mark Payne tallied a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, including a perfect 13-13 effort from the foul line. Ryan Sypkens poured in 11 points off the bench, hitting three triples in the process. Eddie Miller also chipped in with 11 points, as the only other Aggie to reach double figures. For the Owls, Dennis Mavin scored 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, as one of three FAU players in double figures.

The Owls jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first five minutes, using two baskets by Mavin to take the early advantage.

UC Davis got on the board at the 14:27 mark, with freshman Josh Ritchart scoring the first basket of the season for the Aggies. Mark Payne's free throws seconds later brought the score to 11-4.

With Florida Atlantic holding a 13-5 advantage, Greg Gantt picked up an offensive foul for the Owls. After a meeting by the officials, Gantt's foul was changed to a flagrant foul and he was ejected from the game with 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Aggies climbed back in the game from there, taking advantage of a technical foul on FAU head coach Mike Jarvis. Four consecutive free throws brought the score to 15-11, with UC Davis trailing at the 11:07 mark.

The Owls responded with an 8-3 run, capped off by five consecutive points for Pablo Bertone. Ryan Sypkens kept UC Davis in the game, using a pair of threes to make it a 25-19 score with 7:29 on the clock.

For the remainder of the first half, both teams traded baskets in their limited scoring opportunities, making it a 31-24 lead for FAU at the intermission.

UC Davis came out of the locker room and posted an 8-2 run to start the second half, capped off by a pair of Harden baskets. After trading baskets, the Aggies were down by just one with a 35-34 score at the 15:44 mark.

Back-to-back threes from Sypkens and Ryan Howley made the score 41-40 and gave UC Davis their first lead of the game with 13:11 on the clock. Harden continued the scoring burst, finishing an 8-0 run with a layup on an out of bounds play.

There were six lead changes in a span of three minutes, as both teams got going on offense midway through the second half. The Owls took control from there however, using a 10-0 run to go up 58-49 with 5:57 remaining in the game.

UC Davis had a scoring drought of nearly three minutes late in the half, but tried to climb back in game with some full court pressure. The Aggies cut the lead to five with two threes from Howley and Tyler Les, making the score 68-63 with nine seconds left to play. The late offense proved to be too little too late, as FAU managed to hang on for the win with a 70-63 final score.

"I thought we were in a big rush early in the game," said head coach Gary Stewart. "I don't fault the guys for their effort, if anything they were trying too hard at the start. When we settled into the game, it was a difficult game to play because it didn't have a good flow for either unit. It was difficult to get into an offensive rhythm."

"We were very fortunate to go into halftime down seven," continued Stewart. "We just didn't have a good offensive flow and good continuity to our offense. The second half i thought we settled in and played much better. Unfortunately down the stretch, we really got winded. That was a big hill to climb and we had a few possessions where we didn't have a basket. You have to give credit to Florida Atlantic; I thought they made some good adjustments of putting the ball down low late in the game and getting into the interior."

For the game, UC Davis shot 37 percent from the floor, while FAU managed a 46 percent effort as a team. The Owls also took care of the basketball, with only seven turnovers, compared to 18 for the Aggies.

UC Davis will be back in action tomorrow, playing the host school Portland, with a 7 p.m. tip time.