NEXT UP…
GAME 24: UC Irvine (3-19, 1-7) at UC Davis (17-6, 8-2)
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017
2:30 p.m.
The Pavilion (5,931)
Davis, Calif.
TV: None
RADIO: KDVS 90.3 FM
Game Coverage: Gameday Central (Audio/Video/Stats) | UC Davis Notes | UC Irvine Women's Basketball

TIP-OFF: Riding a four-game winning streak and sitting alone atop the Big West Conference standings, UC Davis (17-6, 8-2) gets a little bit of a break this week with only a single game at home this week. The Aggies host UC Irvine on Saturday (Feb. 11) at 2:30 p.m. at The Pavilion in the first game of a doubleheader with the men's team, which hosts UC Riverside.

IN THE POLLS: Both UC Davis and UC Irvine are unranked nationally this week by the Associated Press, USA Today, or the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll.

BE A FOLLOWER: Fans can keep up with the latest in UC Davis athletics by "liking" us on Facebook (facebook.com/UCDavisAggies) and following us on Twitter (@UCDavisAggies). You can also "like" the women's basketball program (facebook.com/UCDavisWomensBasketball) as well as follow them on Twitter and Instagram (@UCDavisWBB). In-game updates on game day are also available on Twitter by following @UCDavisInGame.

ABOUT THE ANTEATERS: UC Irvine enters the week with a 3-19 overall record and a 1-7 mark in Big West Conference play, standing a half a game ahead of Cal State Fullerton for the eighth and final spot at the conference tournament... The Anteaters, who host Cal Poly on Thursday before heading to Davis, have lost their last five straight, including a five-point defeat at the hands of Long Beach State in their only contest last week... UCI is just 1-8 on the road this season, losing its last four dating back to a 72-59 win at Nevada on Dec. 1... Senior Shereen Sutherland leads a trio of double digit scorers for the Anteaters, pouring in 13.2 ppg and grabbing 7.2 rpg while shooting .428 from the floor... Andee Ritter (11.8 ppg) and Sabrina Engelstad (10.7 ppg) are also in double digits.

SERIES NOTES: UC Davis leads the all-time series with UC Irvine, 24-8, dating back to the 1975-76 season, having won its last four consecutive meetings with the Anteaters -- and five of the last six -- beginning with an, 80-71, win in the first round of the 2015 Big West Tournament... The Aggies are 15-7 against UCI in the Division I Era... UC Davis is 10-4 at home against Irvine, having won the last two meetings at The Pavilion after the Anteaters had won three straight... The Aggies' 41-point win earlier this year in Orange County was the largest margin of victory by either program in the series, eclipsing UC Davis' 33-point win in 2010.

INCOMING!: UC Davis women's basketball solidified its front line with a trio of signings during the NCAA's early signing period on Nov. 10, welcoming three high school standouts to the "Aggie Family." Southern California natives Kayla Konrad (Valencia, Calif. / Valencia HS) and Cierra Hall (Cypress, Calif. / Fairmont Prep Academy) join highly-rated Canadian post Sage Stobbart (North Vancouver, British Columbia / Seycove Secondary School) in the Aggies' signing class, who all begin their careers as true freshmen in 2017-18. For more details on the three signees, read the entire release at http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/111016aac.html.

CLOSING IN: Four straight victories have the Aggies at 17 overall and eight in Big West Conference play entering this week's single game, putting UC Davis just two shy of both of its win totals for all of last year when it finished 19-13 overall and 10-6 in league.

ALL SHE DOES IS WIN, WIN, WIN: Head Coach Jennifer Gross is listed among the Aggie record books in a number of categories, including one which has her as the winningest UC Davis player of all time as a part of 101 total victories as a student-athlete from 1993-97, winning no fewer than 22 games in a season during her four years, culminating in a 29-3 record and a third-place finish nationally as a senior. That winning mentality has carried over into her coaching career as the Aggies' sixth-year mentor stands five wins shy of 100, which would put her alonside former coaches Sandy Simpson (251), Jorja Hoehn (205), and Pam Gill-Fisher (164), as UC Davis women's basketball coaches who have reached the century mark in the win column. With six regular season games remaining (plus any possible tournament contests), Gross could reach the milestone as soon as March 2 at UC Riverside.

STREAKING: Saturday's win at UC Santa Barbara gave the Aggies their fourth straight victory, matching their 4-0 start to the 2016-17 season for the longest of the year. A fifth straight victory this weekend against UC Irvine would be UC Davis' longest run of consecutive win since the Aggies won six-in-a-row from Nov. 19-Dec. 6 last season.

TWINBILL TRIUMPHS: The Aggies, who host their third doubleheader of the season on Saturday against UC Irvine, laid claim to their sixth straight victory on doubleheader dates with their win over Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 28, posting its 12th win in their last 13 home doubleheader dates, and improving to 19-4 in their half of the twinbill during the program's Division I Era, including an 9-2 mark against Big West opponents. In 23 all-time home doubleheaders, both the men and women's teams have swept the day 11 times, including four of the last six dates.

DE-FENSE! (CLAP, CLAP) DE-FENSE! (CLAP, CLAP): Take your best shot, but the Aggies' defense will make sure it's not a good one. UC Davis enters the week ranked among the top 25 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (No. 25) and No. 17 in the country in three-point field goal defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 36 percent overall and 27 percent from beyond the arc. As a result, each of the Aggies' last four opponents have scored 55 points or fewer, held to an average of 48.8 ppg during UC Davis' recent win streak.

20-20-20-20-20-20-20 VISION: Back-to-back 20-point games against Central Coast rivals Cal Poly and second-place UC Santa Barbara weren't enough to garner Big West Conference Player of the Week laurels for sophomore Morgan Bertsch, who collected her sixth and seventh 20-point games of the season in the two victories. Two nights after scoring 18 of her game-high 20 points in the second half of a win over the Mustangs, Bertsch muscled her way to a career high-tying 27 points on a career high-tying 11 makes from the field against the Gauchos -- both matching marks last accomplished against UCSB at the Big West Tournament a season ago.

DOUBLE DIGIT DUTY: Bertsch's 21 double-digit scoring performances rank tied for eighth on the school's single-season list during the program's Division I Era, while the 42 for her career stand fifth on the career chart during that same time. The sophomore's seven 20-point games this season also rank fifth, while the 17 for her career stand second behind only Sydnee Fipps, who had 32 such games from 2012-15.

MILESTONE ON THE HORIZON?: Bertsch is just 172 points away from becoming the 18th player in UC Davis history to reach 1,000 points for her career, but she has some work to do -- needing to average 24.6 ppg over the final seven games of the season (seven regular season games, plus the possibility of only one postseason contest). If she were to reach the mark with a monster finish this season, Bertsch would become the first sophomore to do so in the history of the program after three former greats (Carol Rische, Ellen Porshneva, and Sydnee Fipps) accomplished the feat as juniors.

ANDERSON GOES BIG OFF THE BENCH: Junior Marly Anderson came up huge off the bench for the Aggies in their win at UC Santa Barbara, finishing with 14 points on 7-of-10 from the field, ending the day just two points shy of her career high set at Pacific (Nov. 21) and at Sacramento State (Dec. 18). Six of those 14 points (on 3-of-3 from the floor) on Saturday came during a two-minute stretch in the third quarter against the Gauchos, fueling an 8-2 burst by the Aggies that turned a three-point lead into a nine-point advantage as UC Davis pulled away.

WIRE-TO-WIRE: Saturday's win at UC Santa Barbara marked the fourth time this season that UC Davis has led wire-to-wire, joining victories over Holy Names (Nov. 13), UC Irvine (Jan. 5), and Cal Poly (Feb. 2). The Aggies haven't trailed for the last 104:15 of gametime dating back to a three pointer by Cal State Fullerton's Jordan Jackson for a, 14-13, Titan lead at the 5:45 mark of the second quarter on Jan. 28.

RUN AWAY AND HIDE: Thanks to a 14-point triumph over UC Santa Barbara last Saturday, seven of the Aggies' last eight victories -- and 12 of their 17 wins overall this season -- have been by double digits, with the largest being a 41-point triumph over UC Irvine back on Jan. 5.

DROPPING DIMES: Kourtney Eaton's career high-tying nine assists at UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 4 marked the ninth time this season -- and the 20th time in her career -- that the Washington native has finished with at least five assists in a game, and the eighth time in her two seasons as an Aggie with seven-or-more in a game.

HELPING HANDS: Powered by Kourtney Eaton's team-high 104 assists this season, the Aggies rank among the top 25 in the nation in both assists (393 overall) and assists per game (17.1 apg) -- good for No. 23 in the country in both categories entering the week.

ONE FOR YOU, NONE FOR THEM: In racking up those 104 assists, Eaton has turned the ball over only 39 times this season, posting an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.67 that ranks first in the Big West and No. 18 in the NCAA. The Longview, Wash., native has finished with no fewer than three assists in 22 of the team's 23 games, while turning the ball over two-or-fewer times in 17 of those contests -- including five games with zero turnovers.

SHE CAN DISH IT OUT: With two more assists against UC Santa Barbara last Saturday, junior Dani Nafekh solidified her hold on second place on the school's Division I career list with 266, standing only 12 back of Hana Asano for the program's Division I mark and eight behind Jessica Campbell for 10th on the school's all-time list. Nafekh is one of only six players to amass 200-or-more assists at the Division I level in the program's history: Asano, Nafekh, Blair Shinoda (223), Kourtney Eaton (217), Alyson Doherty (214), and Celia Marfone (206).

RECORD CHASING: After going without a block in back-to-back games against UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton, Morgan Bertsch got back into the block column last week at Cal Poly, solidifying her hold on eighth place on the school's all-time list with 73 career swats. She is just seven back of Ellen Porshneva (2003-06, 2007-08) for the No. 7 spot and her 37 swats this season (which rank No. 84 in the NCAA as of Feb. 6) moves her into sole possession of eighth place on the school's single-season list, just one back of Staci Stevens' total from 1987-88.

CENTURY MARK: With 86 blocks thus far this season, the Aggies are just 14 away from hitting the century mark for the second straight year and 39 back of the school's single-season mark of 125 established last season. Should they reach 100 for the year, it will be the third time in the last five seasons that the Aggies will tally at least 100 blocks in a single campaign, and the fourth time since NCAA records are available in 1992-93 along with the 1994-95 UC Davis team that swatted an even 100.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A POINT MAKES: Thanks to its big win against UC Riverside on Feb. 26, UC Davis is a perfect 12-0 this season when scoring 70-or-more points, but is just 5-6 when held to 69-or-fewer after its 62-48 win at UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 4.

SWIPER, NO SWIPING: UC Davis was a little handsy on Feb. 2 at Cal Poly, finishing the night with a season-high 18 steals -- the third time in the last six games that the Aggies have finished in double figures in that category and the most since they had the same number against Akron on Nov. 30, 2013. Led by a career-high tying five swipes from sophomore Kourtney Eaton, UC Davis finished just four steals shy of the school's Division I Era record of 22 at CSUN on Feb. 9, 2008.

FEW AND FAR BETWEEN: When the Aggies turned the ball over on Jan. 14 against CSUN, it must have come as a shock to many because it didn't happen very often. UC Davis finished with only six miscues against the Matadors, not only setting a new season best, but tying the program's Division I record set against CSUN in 2010-11 and tied against UC Riverside a year later.

THAT'S FOUL: UC Davis was whistled for only eight fouls against the Matadors -- tied for the second fewest in a single game in the program's Division I history, standing behind only the six fouls called against the Aggies against Florida A&M last season.

YOU GET MY POINT: Aside from being the third-largest margin of victory in the program's Division I history, the Aggies' 41-point win at UC Irvine is the largest for the program since they posted a 55-point victory over Cal State Monterey Bay back on Dec. 6, 2015, and the largest margin of victory in a Big West game since UC Davis defeated Cal State Fullerton, 88-44, on Jan. 24, 2013. The 89 points were also the most in a conference opener for the Aggies, and the most against a Big West opponent since defeating UCI, 91-72, in 2011.

ROOM TO BOARD: When UC Davis finished with a season-high 52 rebounds in its win at UC Irvine on Jan. 5, the Aggies posted their third-highest single-game rebounding total in the program's Division I Era, and the most since they grabbed a D-1 record 56 boards in a win at Sacramento State on Nov. 18, 2014. It marked the eighth time since 2007-08 that UC Davis has finished with 50-or-more rebounds, but a far cry from the school's all-time single-game mark of 71 rebounds set at Cal State Los Angeles on Dec. 2, 1977.

YOU GET A BASKET! YOU GET A BASKET!: The Aggies were in a giving mood at UC Irvine on Jan. 5, dishing out a season-high 27 assists on their 35 made baskets -- the highest single-game total since UC Davis put up 29 assists against Saint Mary's on Dec. 17, 2007. The distribution fell just shy of the all-time school record of 30, set against Quincy University on Nov. 19, 1993, while the UCI game marked the sixth time that the Aggies have topped 20 assists this season, just two shy of last season's total.