March 2, 2011
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GAME 28
No. 23 UC Davis (19-8, 8-6) at Cal State Northridge (4-24, 4-10)
7 p.m. • Mar. 3 • The Matadome (1,500) • Northridge, Calif.
KDVS (90.3 FM) • www.ucdavisaggies.com • Big West TV
GAME 29
No. 23 UC Davis at Cal State Fullerton (9-19, 5-10)
3 p.m. • Mar. 5 • Titan Gym (4,000) • Fullerton, Calif.
KDVS (90.3 FM) • www.ucdavisaggies.com • Big West TV
* - CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25
OPENING TIPS: With a home game assured in the first round of the Big West Tournament next week, UC Davis will now try to improve its playoff seeding with a pair of road games to finish the regular season... The Aggies will host either UC Irvine (7-8) or Long Beach State (6-9) on Tuesday, depending how this week plays out... Simply put, if third-place UC Riverside (9-5) beats sixth-place LBSU on Wednesday, the Aggies are locked into the No. 4 seed, UCI will be No. 5, and the two teams will meet on Hamilton Court on Tuesday... If the 49ers upset the Highlanders, the door is still open for the Aggies to finish third but they'll need to win twice and hope UCR also loses its finale at UCI on Saturday... Cal Poly (12-3) is assured the No. 1 seed and has clinched a tie for the regular-season title while UC Santa Barbara (11-4) and UCR are battling for the No. 2 seed... Cal State Fullerton (5-10), Cal State Northridge (4-10) and Pacific (4-11) are fighting for the final two playoff spots... The four first-round winners will advance to the Big West semifinals on Mar. 11 at the Honda Center in Anaheim... UC Davis played its final regular-season home game of the year last weekend against UC Irvine, honoring seniors P Paige Mintun, W Heidi Heintz and G Anna Harp during pregame, along with retiring HEAD COACH Sandy Simpson... The Aggies went 11-3 at home during the regular season for the second consecutive year... They're trying to win 20 games for the second straight year as well (21-11 in `09-10), and for the fourth time under Simpson... UC Davis continues to rank among the NCAA Division I leaders in turnover margin (9th, 6.0), 3-pters per game (10th, 7.7) and steals (19th, 11.6)... Altogether, it's ranked among the top 100 in 12 of 18 national statistical categories... Next week's postseason home game will be the program's first since 1999.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NORTHRIDGE AND FULLERTON: W Vicky Deely's 22 points, which included a career-high tying five three-pointers, led five Aggies in double figures as UC Davis beat Cal State Northridge 78-56 on the road on Jan. 2, increasing its all-time series lead to 13-10... The Aggies have won three straight and five of the past six... They're 4-5 at The Matadome... P Paige Mintun tallied 19 two days earlier against the Titans but Cal State Fullerton countered with a double-double from G ASHLEY RITCHIE (10 pts, 11 rebs) to upend UC Davis in the conference-opener, 58-56... That win gave the Titans a 7-6 series edge... Fullerton has won three of the past five games with the series tied 3-3 at Titan Gym.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE MATADORS: The Matadors have four wins this season but all of them have come during the Big West season and have kept them in a hunt for a postseason berth... Among them was a 68-65 win over first-place Cal Poly on Feb. 17, the second game of a two-game winning streak... The Matadors are led by F JASMINE ERVING who leads the team in scoring (15.3) and rebounding (7.0) - third and fifth, respectively, in the Big West - while F VIOLET ALAMA is also scoring in double figures (10.8)... Northridge is shooting just 36.0 percent form the field, is being outscored 72.0-58.1 ppg and outboarded 41.0-36.9 rpg... F ANALEE VIENA-LOTA has a team-best 26 treys, one of six players with at least 11... The Matadors, however, are averaging just 4.4 treys per game, ninth in the conference.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE TITANS: Cal State Fullerton was 4-5 to start the Big West season, including its opening win against UC Davis, but has lost five of its past six... The Titans are paced in scoring by G MEGAN RICHARDSON (15.2) and G LYNDSEY GROVE (12.9), while F/C JENNA BREITE (6.2) is tops in rebounding... The Titans are the top free-throw shooting team in the league, making 75.8 percent and also lead in three-point defense (.292)... They feature three players who have made at least 38 treys so far: Grove (45), G LAUREN CHOW (39) and Richardson (38)... Cal State Fullerton is averaging 65.4 ppg., allowing 71.6 and is being outrebounded by 7.0 pg (41.9-34.9)... The Titans trailed Big West leader Cal Poly just 31-30 at halftime in their last game on Feb. 24 but were outscored 47-28 after that en route to a 78-58 loss.
LAST GAME - UC DAVIS 83, UC IRVINE 67: Senior P Paige Mintun, playing her final regular-season game at The Pavilion, scored 20 points along with teammate W Kasey Riecks, as UC Davis clinched a home game in next week's Big West Tournament with a win over UC Irvine on Saturday afternoon... Three Aggie seniors took part in their final regular-season games on Hamilton Court... Mintun and fellow seniors W Heidi Heintz and G Anna Harp were honored during pregame ceremonies along with head coach Sandy Simpson who will retire from coaching at the end of this season... Their UC Davis teammates rewarded them with a strong effort, making 11 three-pointers, outrebounding the Anteaters 35-33, and picking up 23 assists on 27 baskets... A 19-2 run over the first almost five minutes of the second half, which included back-to-back three-pointers from Riecks and W Samantha Meggison, pushed the lead to its largest margin, 65-33, extending a 46-30 halftime lead.
TOP 100 NCAA RANKINGS: The Aggies are among the top 100 teams in a dozen NCAA statistical areas including turnover margin (9th), three-pointers (10th), steals (19th), and assist/turnover ratio (29th)... Individually, W VICKY DEELEY, who was as high as No. 2 in three-point percentage, is currently No. 37 (.400) while P Paige Mintun, who tied a school record with seven blocks against Pacific, is 54th (1.9) in that department.
IF ONLY THEY COULD: W Vicky Deely is averaging just 19.3 minutes per game but is making the most of her time on the court... If her stats were pro-rated over a complete game, she'd be averaging a team-high 24.0 points and 9.2 rebounds... She'd also be canning 4.3 three-pointers per game... P Paige Mintun is averaging 22.0 points per 40 minutes of playing time while her 9.2 rebounding mark would match Deely's.
MID-MAJOR RANKINGS UPDATE: After spending most of the season ranked among the top 20 in CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll, UC Davis slipped five spots to No. 23 this week after splitting matchups last weekend against UC Riverside and UC Irvine... The Aggies debuted in the poll after the first weekend of the year, rose to as high as No. 8 before moving down since the start of the conference season... Three other Big West teams are receiving votes in the poll: Cal Poly (15), UC Santa Barbara (4) and UC Riverside (2).
THREE-POINT PARADE: UC Davis is averaging 7.7 three-pointers per game, tops in the Big West and ranked 10th nationally... The Aggies made a season-high 14 at San Jose State, had at least 10 in three straight games during the conference season (at UC Irvine, vs. Cal Poly, vs. UCSB), and have reached double-digits eight times... The Aggies made 45.7 percent of their trey attempts during their three-game run of at least 10 made.
AND THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 70: UC Davis is undefeated (15-0) when scoring at least 70 points... The Aggies are 9-0 when scoring between 70-79 and are 6-0 when tallying at least 80... When opponents get above 70, UC Davis is 3-2.
IMPROVING AT THE LINE: The Aggies are shooting just 68.1 percent from the line overall but have much better during the conference season, making 72.6 percent... Last weekend provided a contrast in that area though... UC Davis made just 13 of 24 (.542) in the loss to UC Riverside before rebounding to make 18 of 20 (.900) against UC Irvine... In fact, against the Anteaters this year, the Aggies are 37 of 41 (.902).
SUCCESS AGAINST TOUGH SCHEDULE: Another challenging slate of games has not deterred UC Davis this season which already owns wins against the Pac-10 (Washington State), SEC (South Carolina), Ivy League (Yale), Big Sky (Sacramento State), Missouri Valley (Wichita State) and WCC (San Francisco, Pepperdine, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara)...The Aggies have also faced then-No. 15 UCLA of the Pac-10 and Kansas State from the Big 12.
RECORDS UPDATE: P Paige Mintun has 1,283 career points and is No. 4 all-time, passing former teammate P Ellen Porshneva (1,251) during last month's win over Seattle... She also has a school-record 143 blocks... She went over 1,000 points on Dec. 1 and broke the blocks mark (120) at Pacific last month... She is now 10th in rebounds (578) and with 154 steals is 10th on that liast as well... W Heidi Heintz went over 1,000 career points (split between seasons at San Francisco and UC Davis) at UCSB in January... She and Mintun were honored for their scoring achievements during pregame ceremonies on Feb. 5.
UC DAVIS SIGNS OUTSTANDING PREP TRIO: The Aggies signed three standout players to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period: W LAUREN BEYER (Bradshaw Christian HS, Sacramento), W SYDNEE FIPPS (Yosemite HS, Oakhurst), P EMILY VANN (Saint Mary's College HS, Berkeley)... Beyer is a McDonald's High School All-America nominee, Fipps averaged 24.5 ppg and 10 rpg. last season, and Vann helped lead Saint Mary's to the CIF State Div. IV title game.
SIMPSON ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT: HEAD COACH Sandy Simpson announced in October that the upcoming 2010-11 season will be his last in order to spend more time with his family... Simpson, in his 14th season, has a 246-152 overall record and is the program's all-time leader for wins... He has been coaching for 33 seasons overall including a tenure as an assistant at UC Davis prior to becoming head coach... Simpson led the Aggies to a program-best 29-3 record as interim coach in 1997 as UC Davis finished third at the NCAA Division II Elite Eight Championships... Associate head coach Jennifer Gross, who played on the 1997 squad, has been named as Simpson's replacement on a permanent basis beginning next season.
ON THE AIR AND ON THE INTERNET: All UC Davis games are simulcast on www.ucdavisaggies.com and KDVS (90.3 FM)... Pregame shows begin 15 minutes prior to tipoff... Live stats for all home games, as well as most road matchups, are also available by visiting www.ucdavisaggies.com... Live video of all Big West games is available for a subscription fee at www.bigwest.org... In-game updates are provided via Twitter by following UCDavisAggies on the social networking site.
