Jan. 26, 2015 DAVIS, Calif. - For the fourth week, UC Davis men's basketball leads all 345 Division I teams with its three-point percentage. Even more impressive than its NCAA-high .448 clip from three is that the Aggies are also ranked No. 4 in the nation with its .502 field goal percentage.
Led by senior guard Corey Hawkins who is the top Division I player from three with his .510 shooting from distance, UC Davis sports four players that are among the Big West Conference's top 10 with impressive percentages of their own.
The entire league knows that Tyler Les is a three-point specialist - 88 percent of his 201 career field goals were earned from behind the arc - and still struggle to prevent the senior guard from creating clean looks. Entering Thursday's home game against UC Santa Barbara, Les is No. 4 among all Big West players with his .458 three-point percentage.
Ranked one spot behind his teammate Les with his .439 clip from three, senior guard Avery Johnson has developed a nice touch from distance throughout the last month. Last year, his first at UC Davis, Johnson recorded 18 three-point field goals; he's matched that total already with 11 regular season games remaining.
Bolstered by his career-high four treys in the Aggies' Big West opener against CSUN on Jan. 7, 11 of Johnson's treys have been recorded since the start of the calendar year.
Senior guard/forward Josh Ritchart is the fourth UC Davis player - all redshirt seniors, coincidentally - to secure a top 10 Big West ranking by posting a .419 percentage from three. Ritchart is No. 9 on this week's listing and the final Aggie to add his name to a statistical category dominated by UC Davis.
Ritchart is also one of two Aggies to hold a top 10 field goal percentage - Hawkins is the other and is ranked No. 4 with his .509 clip - and is ranked No. 5 by shooting .494 from the floor throughout his first 18 games played this season.
After spending the last two weeks on the road, UC Davis will return to the Pavilion for its next set of games starting on Thursday when UC Santa Barbara visits campus. Two days later, ESPNU will carry the Aggies' Saturday night home game against Cal Poly - both games will start at 7 p.m.