Feb. 12, 2011

Final Stats

STOCKTON, Calif. - The UC Davis men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday night, falling 70-66 to Pacific after six ties and 14 lead changes in a Big West Conference game at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Pacific (14-10, 6-5) made a late run in the second half and went 6 of 6 from the foul line in the final 20 seconds to seal the win. UC Davis (8-16, 3-9) had a strong offensive night, shooting 51 percent (26-51) from the floor and 67 percent (10-15) from three despite the loss.

Sam Willard had a double-double for the Tigers after 23 points and 11 rebounds on 8 of 12 shooting. Allen Huddleston had 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting with 11 second half points. Nyika Williams also chipped in with 11 points and nine boards.

UC Davis was led by Josh Ritchart, who tallied 17 points off the bench after a perfect 6 of 6 mark from the field and 5 of 5 effort from behind the arc. Joe Harden also recorded 17 points, while Mark Payne was the only other Aggie to reach double figures with 10 points.

"I'm really proud of our kids in terms of their resiliency," said head coach Gary Stewart. "Tonight was so disappointing but in some ways it has to be encouraging. There are a lot of areas that if you make one or two plays, maybe the outcome is different. We still have time to get back and sure some things up."

After an early 7-4 lead for Pacific, the Aggies rattled off a 9-2 run to go up 13-9 with 12:38 on the clock. There were two ties and five lead changes in the first 10 minutes, before UC Davis had another 9-2 run to go up 24-18 with 7:09 remaining in the first half.

The six point advantage with the largest lead for either team in the first half. The Tigers climbed back in the game behind Willard's 14 first half points but the Aggies stayed in front, heading into the locker room with a 32-30 lead.

UC Davis had their biggest lead of the game early in the second half, using a Harden jumper to take a 37-30 advantage with 18:13 on the clock. The Aggies led for the majority of the half, but Pacific used an 8-0 run, capped off by a Willard three to take back the lead with a 47-45 score.

In the final 10 minutes of play, there were four ties and nine lead changes. UC Davis led 57-56 with 5:10 to go in the game but the Aggies were held scoreless for nearly three minutes after that. Pacific had eight unanswered points to go up 62-57 with 2:30 left to play.

Eddie Miller brought UC Davis back in the game from there, hitting a three with the shot clock expiring and throwing down a two-handed dunk to tie the score at 62-62, with 1:21 remaining in the game.

In the final minute, Williams hit two free throws to give Pacific the lead with 58 seconds on the clock. After an empty trip for the Aggies, UC Davis was forced to foul. The Tigers made all their free throws in the final 20 seconds to secure the win.

"We shot the ball extremely well but we didn't take care of the ball well enough in the second half to get enough attempts," said Stewart. "We've got a nice situation set up for us now. We have the two games next week that we can use to make some adjustments. Then we got some some very important games coming up. We have to take care of business but its exciting because we have some things to play for."

UC Davis will take a break from Big West play next week, traveling to play Seattle on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m.