Quarterfinals
No. 5 seed UC Irvine (15-14, 7-9) at No. 4 seed UC Davis (21-8, 10-6)
7 p.m. • March 8 • www.ucdavisaggies.com • KDVS (90.3 FM) • Big West TV
Semifinals (if win on Tuesday)
Noon or 2:30 p.m. • March 11 • Honda Center • Anaheim, Calif.
www.ucdavisaggies.com • KDVS (90.3 FM) • FSN Prime Ticket
Championship (if win first two)
1 p.m. • March 12 • Honda Center • Anaheim, Calif.
www.ucdavisaggies.com • KDVS (90.3 FM) • FSN Prime Ticket
OPENING TIPS:
UC Davis hosts its first postseason game since 1999 and its first conference tournament matchup since 1998 when the fourth-seeded Aggies meet fifth-seeded UC Irvine in a quarterfinal game in the ampm Big West Tournament on Tuesday night... It's the second straight game on Hamilton Court between the teams which met on Feb. 26... UC Davis enters the tournament with its second straight 20-win season - fourth for HEAD COACH Sandy Simpson - and has already matched its 21-win total from last year... The Aggies are in their fourth Big West Tournament, advancing to the title game during their inaugural year in 2008 - only the second Big West team to accomplish that - and then advanced again last year... UC Davis lost in the quarterfinals to Cal State Northridge in 2009... Quarterfinal winners on Tuesday advance to the semifinals at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Friday afternoon... UC Davis brings a three-game winning streak into the week and has won each by at least 12 points... It swept two games with UC Irvine this season but needed a late surge on the road to win the first matchup in January, 91-72... The Aggies set a school record this season with 221 three-pointers, breaking the previous mark of 206 set last year... UC Davis is hoping to advance to its second straight Big West Tournament final and earn its first-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament... The Aggies are 22-6 (.786) on Hamilton Court since the start of last season, enjoyed a 13-game home winning streak (snapped in January) and have won 19 of their past 21 games at home... Other games on Tue: Fullerton at Cal Poly; Pacific at UCSB; LBSU at UC Riverside.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. UC IRVINE: The Aggies have controlled the all-time series with UC Irvine, winning 17 of 18 previous matchups including both this year... W Vicky Deely scored 25 points - 23 during a 10-minute span of the second half - as UC Davis pulled away late and won 91-72 in Irvine on Jan. 27 while W Kasey Riecks and P Paige Mintun each scored 20 points during an 83-67 win during the regular-season home finale on Feb. 26... UC Davis had 11 three-pointers and 13 steals during the latter win... The Aggies are 7-1 all-time against the Anteaters at The Pavilion... UC Irvine won 79-72 during the 2005-06 season.
A QUICK LOOK AT THE ANTEATERS: UC Irvine enters the tournament with 15 wins but has lost three straight games and six of its last eight... MIKAH MALY-KARROS leads the team in scoring (19.5) and rebounding (9.7) but has not played for the past seven games... G JADE SMITH-WILLIAMS (14.9) and F TAYLER CHAMPION (11.1) have carried the scoring load for the Anteaters with JAZMYNE WHITE (5.7) and Champion (5.2) pacing the team on the boards... UC Irvine is slightly outscoring its opponents (67.8-67.0) and is shooting 73.5 percent from the field... JACQUELYN MARSHALL has made a team-high 40 three-pointers while Smith-Williams has 35 and Champion 33... Smith-Williams earned All-Big West first-team recognition.
LAST GAME - UC DAVIS 73, CAL STATE FULLERTON 58: P Paige Mintun and W Kasey Riecks each scored a game-high 18 points, and UC Davis outscored host Cal State Fullerton 22-0 over the last nearly 10 minutes of the first half on Saturday afternoon, as the Aggies downed the Titans in a Big West Conference women's basketball game... W Heidi Heintz added 14 points for UC Davis which shot 51.8 percent from the field, including 57.1 percent (12 of 21) in the second half... Riecks had four of the Aggies' six three-pointers... UC Davis, though, was able to shake five lead changes and two ties by stringing together a dominating final 10 minutes of the half. Lindsey Grove hit a three-pointer for a 21-17 Fullerton lead with 10:14 to go but that would be the Titan' final score until early after halftime... Mintun and Heintz each had three-point plays, Riecks had a pair of three-pointers and five Aggies scored overall as UC Davis scored 22 unanswered points to lead 39-21 at halftime... The Titans cut the deficit to just 55-48 with 8:25 remaining but W Brianna Salvatorre scored inside, Mintun later hit a trey and UC Davis scored 10 of the next 12 points to make it 65-50 with less than four minutes to go.
TOP 100 NCAA RANKINGS: The Aggies are among the top 100 teams in a dozen NCAA statistical areas including turnover margin (11th), three-pointers (13th), steals (22nd), and 39th in assists (15.2)... Individually, W VICKY DEELEY, who was as high as No. 2 in three-point percentage, is currently No. 39 (.400) while P Paige Mintun, who tied a school record with seven blocks against Pacific, is 60th (1.8) in that department.
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 last week after splitting matchups the previous 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 received votes in last week's poll: Cal Poly (15), UC Santa Barbara (4) and UC Riverside (2).
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT HISTORY: UC Davis owns a 21-11 (.656) record in all-time conference tournament games but hasn't played one at home since beating Humboldt State 72-43 in 1998 in the first round of the Northern California Athletic Conference Shaughnessy... All of the Aggies' postseason games prior to its Big West membership came as part of the NCAC (during its Div. II era)... UC Davis is 2-3 in Big West Tournament games, advancing to title matchups in 2008 and 2010, and losing in the quarterfinal round in 2009.
ALL-BIG WEST TEAMS ANNOUNCED: The league announced its postseason awards on Monday and the Aggies had three honorees... P Paige Mintun became the first three-time all-conference first-team honoree in team history, W Heidi Heintz earned second-team recognition for the second straight year, and W Vicky Deely was named honorable mention as well as "Sixth Woman of the Year."
DOWNTOWN RECORD: UC Davis has set a school record for most three-pointers in a season, canning 221 during the regular season to break the previous mark of 206 (for an overall season) set last year... The Aggies are averaging 7.6 per game and are ranked 13th in Div. I... They've made at least 10 treys in seven games and over a three-game span against UC Irvine, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara in the middle of the Big West schedule, made 32... UC Davis had a season-high 14 at San Jose State on Dec. 21.
REACHING 20 WINS/DIV. I ERA: The Aggies have won 20 games in a season for the second year in a row, for the second time in four seasons as a Div. I program and for the fourth time under head coach Sandy Simpson... UC Davis is 72-49 (.595) since moving to Div. I, launching its new era in 2007-08, finishing 19-12 and becoming the second team in Big West history to advance to the title game in just its first year of membership... The Aggies have also been to a pair of Women's National Invitational Tournaments (WNIT), losing at Gonzaga in 2008 and in overtime to eventual champion Cal last year.
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 1,316 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 147 career blocks, including a school-record 51 this season... She went over 1,000 points on Dec. 1 and broke the blocks mark (120) at Pacific... She is now 10th in rebounds (585) and with 157 steals is 10th on that list 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 248-152 (.620) 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.
