Game 18

UC Davis Aggies (14-3, 4-0 BWC)
at
Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine (13-6, 1-2 BWC)

Jan. 22, 2015 - 9 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. HT
Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) - Honolulu

Radio: KSAC (105.5 FM) - Scott Marsh (PBP; 8:30 p.m. (PT) pregame show)
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Game Notes DAVIS, Calif. - With a win at Hawai'i this Thursday, UC Davis will enjoy its second six-game win streak of the season (the Aggies opened the 2014-15 season in a similar manner) and set two new Division I school records with 15 overall and seven road victories. However, accomplishing these feats will be a tough task against a Rainbow Warriors squad that has earned 10 of their 13 victories this season inside the Stan Sheriff Center - site of this week's lone Big West game for the Aggies.

Two years ago when UC Davis visited Hawai'i for the first time as Big West foes, Corey Hawkins scored a school-record 40 points on 10 of 14 shooting to break a 34-year-old single-game scoring record. His eight threes at Hawai'i also tied a UC Davis record for the most recorded in a single game, and tied Hawai'i's all-time record for the most scored by an opponent in a single game. That year, the Aggies swept the Rainbow Warriors.

Last season, it was the Rainbow Warriors that swept an injury-depleted UC Davis lineup.

Series Record: Hawai'i leads 4-2
Last UC Davis Win: 89-65; 2/14/13 in Davis
Last Hawai'i Win: 74-64; 2/22/14 in Honolulu
Series Streak: Hawai'i +2

WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE!
UC Davis is the No. 1 team in the country (out of 345 Div. I teams) with its three-point percentage.

Through games played on Jan. 19, the Aggies sport a .441 percentage from the behind the arc - that's a full five percentage points better than UC Irvine, the Big West's second-ranked team.

BETTER THAN 50/50 ODDS? I'LL TAKE THAT
UC Davis is also ranked No. 4 in the nation, and No. 1 in the Big West, with its .501 field goal percentage. The No. 2 ranked league team, also UC Irvine, is shooting at a .480 clip.

TOP 25 TALENT
Just a handful of days after grabbing the nation's attention after scoring 28 points and collecting 10 rebounds in Jan. 10's ESPNU home game against Long Beach State, Corey Hawkins was named one of the nation's best college basketball players by ESPN.

The senior guard was ranked No. 25 college basketball pundit John Gasaway's annual hype-free, performance-based listing of the top 25 players in the country.

#AGGIEPRIDE LEADS TO ESPNU'S RETURN
Fans were loud on Jan. 10 when ESPNU broadcasted UC Davis' home game against Long Beach State, which is why the network is returning to the Pavilion on Jan. 31 to air the Aggies' league game against Cal Poly. This marks the first time in program history that UC Davis will host two nationally televised games in the same season.

GIVE HIM AN INCH, YOU'RE GIVING HIS TEAM THREE POINTS
Even with opposing teams designing game plans to contain him, Corey Hawkins still finds ways to create solid looks from three. The senior guard has connected on 47 of 94 shots from distance and is the No. 2 ranked player in the nation in the nation with his .500 percentage.

Hawkins only trails Lafayette's Joey Ptasinski, and his .521 percentage, for the top three-point shooting mark in the country (through games played on Jan. 19).

FANTASTIC MR. FOX
It's more than just a great way to keep kids silent for a couple of hours, its an accurate way to describe the way junior forward Josh Fox dominated the paint on both ends of the court last Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. Fox hit 8 of 11 shots, recorded 20 of the Aggies' 37 bench points that evening, and now leads the Big West Conference with his .660 field goal percentage.

KEEP YOUR HEAD ON A SWIVEL...
Is the best piece of advice for all Aggie players on the court whenever sophomore guard Darius Graham or Corey Hawkins possess the ball. The pair lead the team with 61 and 59 assists respectively; combined, they are responsible for 49 percent of the team's total.

CLIMBING THE MID-MAJOR LADDER
By collecting another two wins in convincing fashion last week and preserving its spot atop the Big West standings as the only team with an undefeated league record, UC Davis jumped eight spots in CollegeInsider's Mid-Major Top 25 Poll to the No. 17 position.

On Nov. 24, UC Davis made its inaugural Division I appearance on CollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major Top 25 poll when the Aggies received one vote. Five weeks later, UC Davis earned its first-ever, D-I national ranking when the media outlet listed the Aggies as the No. 25 mid-major team in the nation in its Dec. 22 poll.

LIGHTS, CAMERAS, AGGIES
The Aggie faithful has flocked in droves to represent the campus in front of the ESPN cameras during its last three televised games On Jan. 10, 5,089 came in full force to help the Aggies capture a come-from-behind, OT victory in a game aired by ESPNU. Last season, 5,227 fans attended UC Davis' home finale versus UC Santa Barbara; 5,670 packed the Pavilion for the Mar. 7, 2013, tilt versus Long Beach State. Both games were aired on ESPN2.

Those totals represent the top three attendance figures since the Pavilion was reconfigured and capacity was trimmed in 2009.

WELCOME BACK AGGIE ALUMS
ESPNU's return to Davis is well-timed since Jan. 31 is also men's basketball's alumni weekend. A printable flyer that contains the schedule for that weekend is available on the men's basketball homepage at ucdavisaggies.com.

TV NETWORKS WANT TO AIR UC DAVIS' ROAD GAMES TOO
Less than two hours passed between ESPNU's announcement of its return to the Pavilion on Jan. 31, and FOX Prime Ticket's decision to televise the Aggies' Feb. 7 road game at CSUN. Including UC Davis' Feb. 5 ESPN3 game at UC Irvine, the entire country will have the ability to watch UC Davis compete on national TV on three consecutive occasions.

IMAGINE IF HE PLAYED ALL FOUR YEARS IN DAVIS
Currently in his third, and final season at UC Davis, Corey Hawkins continues to stamp his name throughout the team's records book. The senior guard is now ranked No. 4 in school history with 1,443 points and is 80 shy of third place which is currently held by Vince Oliver and his 1,523-point total.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE...
This year's team is the first Division I squad to post a 4-0 league mark, and the first since the 1998-99 season. That team was the last to open conference play with wins in its first four matchups, but saw its streak snapped the following game.

The 1997-98 season saw UC Davis win its first five games against league competition, and the remaining nine that followed en route to a Division II national championship.

AFIVE-TOOL PLAYER IN BASKETBALL?
As the numbers indicate, that's the best way to describe Corey Hawkins since the senior guard can defend, score, protect the ball, create open looks for teammates and force turnovers. Hawkins' NCAA and Big West rankings include (NCAA and Big West stats through games played on Jan. 19):

NCAA
Three-point percentage: 2nd/.500
Points per game: 8th/20.9
Three-point field goals per game: 29th/2.94
Total three-point FGM: 54th/47
Total points: 39th/335
Field goal percentage: 70th/.512

Big West Conference
Points per game: 1st/20.9
Rebounding: T-12th/5.5
Field goal percentage: 5th/.512
Assists: 5th/3.69 per game
Free throw percentage: 6th/.791
Steals: 7th/1.44 per game
Three-point percentage: 1st/.500
Three-point field goals per game: 2nd/2.94
Assist to turnover ratio: 8th/1.37

CAREER WIN NO. 200 IS WITHIN REACH
Entering Saturday's game, UC Davis head coach Jim Les has 196 career victories.

THE AGGIES' RULE OF THREE
UC Davis leads all Big West teams by averaging 9.00 three-point field goals per game, holds the highest success rate from distance with its .441 three-point percentage, and sports four of the league's top 10 shooters from behind the arc in seniors Corey Hawkins, Avery Johnson, Tyler Les and Josh Ritchart.

Hawkins leads all league players with his .500 three-point percentage; Les is ranked No. 4 with his .451 clip; Johnson is No. 6 by virtue of his .436 mark; Ritchart is No. 8 and is shooting .422 from three.

GREAT TEAMS FIND A WAY TO WIN
Lost in UC Davis' 11-point, come-from-behind win in its ESPNU home game against Long Beach State is the fact that the Aggies did not play their best basketball, and still found a way to collect a thrilling OT victory.

UC Davis committed a season-high 22 turnovers that evening, which led to 24 Long Beach points. If you add the 49ers' 20 second-chance points earned from one of their 16 offensive rebounds, 44 of the team's 67 points (.657 pct.) were earned off Aggie miscues.

THE FIRST OF MANY
UC Davis entered its Big West opener at the Pavilion, against CSUN, with a 10-3 record. The Aggies' 10 wins, prior to the start of league play, are a new Division-I high, and twice as many compared to last year's pre-Big West slate. Until Jan. 3, the 2008-09 roster set the previous D-I program high by winning six games before facing its first league opponent.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
Jan. 15's game at UC Riverside marked junior forward Josh Fox's first game at his former home in a UC Davis uniform. That evening, he finished with five points, five rebounds, and was one of three Aggies to hold UC Riverside's top scorer, Taylor Johns (who entered with a 17.2 ppg average), to only six in a 13-point, UC Davis victory.

During his freshman season, Fox competed for the Highlanders; that was his only year in Riverside because he transferred to City College of San Francisco before the start of the 2013-14 academic year.

LET'S GET IT STARTED
This season's team earned wins in 12 of its first 15 games to set a new D-I school record.

The best start(s) in the 104-year history of the program belong to the 1997-98 and '98-'99 teams as each collected 13 wins out of their first 15 games played. After beginning the year with a 13-2 record, the former finished its season with wins in all 18 of their following games to end the year with a NCAA Division II national title.

LET'S GET IT STARTED - BIG WEST EDITION
The Aggies will enter Titan Gym with their first-ever 4-0 start to league play after dispatching UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton last week by 13 and 11 points respectively.

UC Davis dispatched CSUN and Long Beach State during the opening weekend of Big West play to improve to 12-3 overall, the program's best Division I start through 15 games, and the best overall start since the 1999-2000 team opened up 13-2.

SNEAK PEEK
The way UC Davis started its season, it's fair to take a look at a few Division I records and milestones that are on the precipice of disappearing in the upcoming weeks. During the 2012-13 season, the Aggies recorded a record 14 D-I overall, nine Big West and six road wins (not including another two that were earned on a neutral court). Entering Thursday's game, this year's squad has 14 overall, six road and four league victories.

CONTINUING THE THEME - THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
This year's men's basketball team commenced its current three-game road trip with eight home wins. That matches the overall total earned by the 2007-08 and '09-'10 teams - the school's current all-time Division I high.

The most home wins earned by any men's hoops team (since the 1977-78 season when home/road delineations were included on-record) belongs to the 1997-98 Division II national champions. The Aggies won all 17 games on their home floor, including all four playoff games that took place inside the Pavilion.

WHILE WE ARE AT IT...
Since joining the Big West in 2007, the Aggies have never posted 10 victories before their league opener, until this year when men's hoops won non-conference game No. 10 in its final conference tune-up.

The 1997-98 Division II championship team was the last to secure 10 non-conference victories before facing its first conference opponent. That year, the Aggies were 10-2 before facing its inaugural California Collegiate Athletic Association foe.

WHY STOP NOW?
The 1999-2000 season marked the last time UC Davis won 20 or more games in a season when that roster collected 22 victories. That was the last of a six-season stretch that saw the Aggies win 20 or more games each year.

ANOTHER ALL-AGGIE AFFAIR
Earlier this season, Utah State visited UC Davis for an all-Aggie non-conference game. On Jan. 17, another all-Aggie matchup, of a different kind, took place at Cal State Fullerton when UC Davis battles a Titan squad led by former Aggie, and current second-year head coach, Dedrique Taylor.

That evening, the Aggies defeated the Titans by 11 points.

Taylor, a 1997 graduate and member of the men's basketball staff as an assistant coach during the 2000-01 season, donned a UC Davis uniform for two seasons (1995-96 and '96-'97). In his two years as an Aggie, his teams posted a combined 43-16 overall record and earned a pair of trips to the second round of the NCAA Regional Tournament. He graduated from UC Davis with a degree in sociology and organizational studies in 1997.