Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. -- UC Davis sophomore Pele Gianotti tied a career high with 11 points, sharing team-high honors with classmate Dani Nafekh on the night, but visiting Pacific used an 10-2 run to start the third quarter, erasing a four-point deficit en route to a 66-53 victory on Monday night at The Pavilion.

The Aggies fell to 0-2 overall on the year with the loss, while the Tigers remained perfect at 2-0 to start the season.

"We're young, that's what it comes down to," Head Coach Jennifer Gross said. "We've got sophomores and freshmen who are playing a lot of minutes right now and we're still working out the kinks. Something that we were trying to do, early on, was get our defensive habits down, we've been spending a lot of time on that and kind of put the offense on hold. Now we've got to start getting our offense down too. We've got the ability to score, we've just got to get in a better flow."

Gianotti added six rebounds and two steals in 30 minutes to match her career-best scoring output previously set in a win at Sacramento State last season. Nafekh scored 10 of her 11 points as part of a second quarter burst -- including seven straight at one point -- to post her fourth career double-digit scoring performance.

Senior Celia Marfone and freshman Morgan Bertsch finished with a team-high seven rebounds each -- the latter recording a career high on the glass.

Erin Butler and Hallie Eackles combined to hit 8-of-14 from beyond the arc, finishing with 17 and 15 points, respectively, for Pacific, while Mauriana Clayton led all players with nine rebounds for the Tigers.

UC Davis trailed by as many as four early, and was down three at the five-minute mark of the first quarter, before a 6-0 spurt -- capped by a Rachel Nagel jumper -- regained the lead for the Aggies. UC Davis led by as many as four in the opening period, hitting 8-of-9 from the line following a 2-of-6 start, and used a 10-3 run over the final four minutes to lead 17-13 after one.

After two free throws to start the second, a jumper by Eackles two minutes in gave the Tigers their first field goal since the seven minute mark of the 1st quarter, and a 7-0 run cut the Aggies' lead to just a point after UC Davis had pushed out to an eight-point, 25-17, advantage on a Kourtney Eaton three-pointer with six minutes to play in the half.

That's when Nafekh caught fire, scoring 10 points around the three points to push the lead back to six, and carry a 35-31 advantage into the locker room at the break.

Eackles came out of the locker room firing to start the second half, hitting back-to-back three-pointers to regain the lead for the Tigers two minutes in. Alyson Doherty hit a pair of free throws to bring the Aggies even, and Kourtney Eaton hit 1-of-2 from the line to give her team the one-point advantage, but Pacific responded with its game-breaking run, pushing the Tigers out to a seven-point lead with 3:17 to play, and they never looked back.

UC Davis got it back to four points with just under a minute to play on a pair of free throws by Marfone and a jumper by Gianotti, but a three-pointer by Butler pushed it back to seven and the Tigers eventually led by 15 points en route to the win.

"I thought our energy was a little down tonight and I'm not quite sure why," Gross said. "We've been doing a great job of that in practice. I love our team. We have a great team. There's going to be some ups and downs, we have to believe in ourselves, stay the course, and we'll bounce back."

The Aggies close out the week by hitting the road for the first time this season, heading to Southern California to take on San Diego State on Thursday (Nov. 19). Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. from Viejas Arena.

PACIFIC (2-0)
EACKLES, Hailie 5-12 4-5 17; BUTLER, Erin 5-12 0-0 15; COLEMAN, Unique 3-7 3-6 9; QUEENLAND, Najah 4-10 0-2 8; CLAYTON, Mauriana 3-4 0-1 6; LUAULU-SUMMERS, G. 2-12 1-2 6; SIMONS, Emily 2-6 0-0 4; LI, Ameela 0-6 1-2; LIDY, Chelsea 0-0 0-0 0; FINNIE, Desire 0-1 0-0 0; LOPEZ SAGRERA, Eli 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-70 9-18 66.

UC DAVIS (0-2)
Nafekh, Dani 4-6 3-3 11; Gianotti, Pele 3-6 5-7 11; Doherty, Alyson 1-6 6-8 8; Nagel, Rachel 2-9 4-6 8; Eaton, Kourtney 2-5 1-2 6; Marfone, Celia 1-6 2-2 5; Bertsch, Morgan 2-4 0-3 4; McGuire, Taylor 0-4 0-0 0; Eaton, Karley 0-1 0-0 0; Seyranian, Lauren 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-47 21-31 53.

Pacific....................... 13 18 22 13 - 66
UC Davis...................... 17 18 11 7 - 53

3-point goals--Pacific 9-26 (BUTLER, Erin 5-9; EACKLES, Hailie 3-5; LUAULU-SUMMERS, G. 1-5; SIMONS, Emily 0-2; LI, Ameela 0-2; QUEENLAND, Najah 0-1; COLEMAN, Unique 0-2), UC Davis 2-18 (Marfone, Celia 1-2; Eaton, Kourtney 1-4; Nagel, Rachel 0-5; McGuire, Taylor 0-3; Eaton, Karley 0-1; Gianotti, Pele 0-2; Nafekh, Dani 0-1). Fouled out--Pacific-CLAYTON, Mauriana, UC Davis-None. Rebounds--Pacific 48 (CLAYTON, Mauriana 9), UC Davis 35 (Marfone, Celia 7; Bertsch, Morgan 7). Assists--Pacific 11 (LUAULU-SUMMERS, G. 3), UC Davis 10 (Nafekh, Dani 3). Total fouls--Pacific 22, UC Davis 19. Technical fouls--Pacific-None, UC Davis-None. A-520 George Putnam (courtside technician).