Box Score

IRVINE, Calif. -- UC Davis senior Alyson Doherty finished with a team-high 15 points to lead three teammates in double figures and senior Celia Marfone tied her career high with 15 rebounds on the day, helping lift the Aggies to a 76-70 victory over UC Irvine on Saturday afternoon at the Bren Events Center in Irvine.

UC Davis finished the regular season with a 17-12 overall record and a 10-6 mark in Big West Conference play, posting the highest win totals in both categories since the 2012 and 2011 seasons, respectively. The Aggies are the No. 4 seed in next week's Big West Conference Tournament, earning a first-round bye, and facing the highest remaining seed after the opening round on Wednesday night.

UC Irvine finished the regular season 4-26 overall and 1-15 in league play.

"It's a great win for us," Head Coach Jennifer Gross said. "Irvine played so hard with so much at stake, they never gave up. They put a couple runs on us and I was really proud of our team. We had to dig deep and make some plays. We had a lot of people step up and help us get this win today."

Doherty hit 5-of-7 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line en route to her team-high honors, adding four rebounds in 27 minutes. The performance moved her past Aimee Conner (1989-93) and into sixth place on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,269 for her career.

Eight of Marfone's 15 rebounds were on the offensive end, adding seven points, two assists, and a pair of blocks. It marked the senior's third double-digit rebounding game of the season and the 15th of her career.

"Celia really came with some attitude on the boards tonight," Gross said. "Eight offensive rebounds was key to getting us some extra possessions and really keeping the energy going for us."

Freshman Morgan Bertsch added 13 points and three blocks -- the latter just one off her career high -- while Kourtney Eaton and Rachel Nagel added 10 points apiece. Eaton narrowly missed out on her first career double-double with nine rebounds and flirted with a triple-double, adding five assists.

Trailing by five at the break, UC Irvine opened the second half on a 6-0 run, taking its first lead of the game at 40-39 on a jumper by Raelyn Cheung-Sutton with 7:44 to play. After a free throw by Pele Gianotti tied the game, a basket by Andrea Ritter put the Anteaters up by a pair a minute later.

Thats when the Aggies found their stroke, as sophomore Dani Nafekh drained a three-pointer from the top of the key with 4:38 to play that gave UC Davis the lead for good, and the Aggies closed the quarter with a 7-0 burst to lead, 55-46, after three periods.

The UC Davis lead grew to as many as 14 in the fourth quarter thanks to a 9-2 run, putting the Aggies in front 64-50 with just over five minutes to play and they never looked back. A couple rallies by Irvine were turned away, as the Anteaters made it close late on free throws by Cheung-Sutton and Mckenzie Piper in the closing seconds.

The Aggies led by six points after one, buoyed by a 50 percent shooting performance from the floor, but the Anteaters didn't go away quietly, opening the second period with a three by Ritter and getting four straight from the line to make it a one-point game at 25-24, with 6:53 to play.

UC Davis responded as Kourtney Eaton nailed a three to spark a 7-0 run -- part of a larger 11-2 burst by the Aggies that gave them their largest lead of the game at 36-26 four minutes later. UCI answered with six straight points to reel UC Davis back to within four, but another three pointer by Kourtney Eaton gave the Aggies some breathing room and they carried a five-point lead, 39-34, into the locker room at the break.

UC Davis shot just under 42 percent from the floor for the game and hit 24-of-32 from the line -- setting season highs in both. The Aggies out-rebounded the Anteaters, 47-34, and finished with 18 assists on their 23 makes.

The Big West Tournament opens on Tuesday (March 8) back here in Irvine for the first two rounds, before switching to the Honda Center in Anaheim for the semifinals and championship game beginning on Friday (March 11). For more information, visit the Big West Conference website at www.BigWest.org.

"We've been preparing for this upcoming week all year long, since we started way back in August," Gross said. "Now it's about controlling the nervous energy. I told the team that all they need to worry about is rest, getting their feet up, and getting their bodies and minds ready to come and give it everything we have."