NEXT GAME…
Saint Mary's (5-3, 0-0 WCC) at UC Davis (6-5, 0-0 Big West)
Monday, Dec. 17, 2018 | 6:00 p.m. PT | The Pavilion | Davis, Calif.
RADIO: KDVS 90.3 FM (PxP: Greg Wong… Analyst: Myles Roach)
TV: None
OPENING TIP: Riding its longest winning streak of the season following its third-consecutive victory on Saturday in San Francisco, the UC Davis women's basketball team returns home for the final time before the holidays, hosting rival Saint Mary's on Monday (Dec. 17) at 6 p.m. at The Pavilion.
HELP TOYS FOR TOTS AT AGGIE BASKETBALL: With the holiday season upon us, UC Davis athletics is joining forces with the Marine Toys for Tots program for its annual toy drive during this weekend's games at The Pavilion. Fans can bring in new and unwrapped toys in exchange for a $5 ticket to the men's game against William Jessup on Sunday (Dec. 16) at 2 p.m., and the women's game against Saint Mary's on Monday (Dec. 17) at 6 p.m. Fans need only to present their donation at The Pavilion ticket window to receive the discount.
SHOW OFF THAT SWEATER: Those who sport an "ugly sweater" to Monday night's game will also receive a voucher for In-N-Out.
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" women's basketball (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 @UCDavisWBB.
IN THE POLLS: Neither UC Davis, nor Saint Mary's, are ranked nationally this week... The Aggies fell out of this week's College Insider Mid-Major poll released on Dec. 11 -- ending a run of 23 consecutive weeks dating back to last season that UC Davis has been listed in that poll during the regular season... Saint Mary's is ranked No. 17 in this week's mid-major poll.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, AGGIES!: The two-time defending Big West Conference champion UC Davis women's basketball team is scheduled to make a pair of appearances — with the possibility of a third — on ESPN3 during league play, as announced by ESPN and the Big West office. The Aggies kick off the league's broadcast schedule with their Big West opener on Jan. 5 at UC Riverside at 2 p.m., in a rematch of last year's conference tournament semifinal clash at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. UC Davis will also be featured in its Jan. 24 road contest at CSUN, pitting last year's Big West tournament finalists against one another in Northridge with a 7 p.m. tip-off from The Matadome. Another appearance has the Aggies taking on Long Beach State on Feb. 28 at the Walter Pyramid at 7 p.m., one of two possible "wild card" selections that night. The decision on the game will be made closer to the date. UC Davis last appeared in a regular season ESPN3 broadcast on Jan. 8, 2015, at CSUN — a 60-49 victory in Northridge.
BERTSCH EARNS FIFTH CAREER BIG WEST HONOR: Senior biomedical engineering major
Morgan Bertsch capped off a net-torching weekend with Big West Player of the Week honors on Monday (Dec. 10), picking up her second award of the season and the fifth of her career. She scored 68 points (34.0 ppg) in just 47 minutes of action, shooting 58 percent from the field against Sacramento State and SeattleU. Read the complete release here:
https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2018/12/10/womens-basketball-high-scoring-bertsch-earns-fifth-big-west-honor.aspx.
A NATIONAL HONOR TOO: Mere hours after being named the Big West Player of the Week, Bertsch was named the national mid-major player of the week according to College Sports Madness -- part of the USA Today Sports Media Group.
ABOUT THE GAELS: Saint Mary's enters Monday's game with a 5-3 record after dropping an 81-78 overtime decision at home against No. 13 California back on Dec. 8, opening a six-game road trip in Davis... The Gaels only other losses this season have come against Oregon State and No. 3 Oregon... Sophomore guard Emily Codding (12.3) leads a trio of Saint Mary's players in double figures along with senior forward Sydney Raggio (12.1 ppg) and freshman guard Sam Simons (10.0 ppg)... Raggio leads the team on the boards at 8.9 rpg, while Codding is shooting .571 from the field... The Gaels are averaging 71.4 ppg and shooting .463 from the floor while surrendering 71.8 ppg and .404 shooting.
SERIES NOTES: UC Davis holds a slim, 13-12, lead in the all-time series with Saint Mary's according to records that date back to the 1978-79 season... The Aggies have won the last three straight against the Gaels following last year's, 74-50, victory in Moraga... UC Davis is 6-6 at home against Saint Mary's, winning three of the last five at The Pavilion following a 68-66 win on Dec. 11, 2016, in the last game played in Davis... Three of the last four contests have been decided by seven points or fewer, including a pair of two-point decisions.
CONFERENCE CALL: Saint Mary's will be the second straight -- and the fourth overall -- West Coast Conference opponent for UC Davis, following contests against Pacific, Loyola Marymount, and San Francisco... The Aggies are a combined 47-53 (.470) against the current WCC alignment, winning 11 of its last 13 against the league... The Aggies have faced all but two (BYU and San Diego) of the league's current members: Gonzaga (0-3), Pacific (15-14), Pepperdine (2-3), Portland (2-2), Saint Mary's (13-12), San Francisco (7-7), Santa Clara (8-11), and LMU (0-1).
WE'RE GOING STREAKING!!: The Aggies' three-game winning streak is their longest since they opened last year's WNIT with three consecutive victories, averaging 85.0 ppg and shooting better than 48 percent (92-for-191) from the floor, while stepping things up on defense, holding the opposition to just 62.3 ppg and 35 percent (70-for-198) shooting from the field.
MORGAN ON A ROLL: Hold the mayo. Following 14 points at San Francisco, Bertsch has now scored in double figures in her last 46 consecutive contests dating back to last season -- and 96 of 111 games overall in her career. The high-scoring Santa Rosa, Calif., native has not been held to single digits since March 23, 2017, in a WNIT "Sweet 16" match-up against Washington State (six points), and has been held without a point in a game only once in her career – at Colorado State on March 19, 2017, in the second round of the WNIT.
CHART CLIMBER: Bertsch enters Monday's game standing 10th on the Big West Conference career scoring list with 1,926 points, needing just two points to catch Pacific's Julie Szukalski (1986-90) for ninth and 74 more to become the eighth player in the history of the conference to reach 2,000 points for a career.
THREEEEE-CO-LA: The Aggie shooters found their stroke on Saturday night at San Francisco, draining a season-high 11 three-pointers and shooting 44 percent -- the second-highest of the season -- from beyond the arc against the Dons. Of those 11 makes, junior biological sciences major
Sophia Song sank a career-high five of those, becoming the first UC Davis player to hit at least five in a game since
Rachel Nagel did so against Portland State on Nov. 17 of last season.
SWEET, SWEET, SONG: Speaking of the junior sharpshooter from Monterey Park, Calif., Song finished with a career-high 15 points in a career-high 27 minutes in the win over the Dons, hitting 5-of-9 from the floor with all but one of those attempts coming from beyond the arc. Song, who has hit 10-of-19 (.526) from the floor and 7-of-12 (.583) from beyond the arc in three career games against USF, broke her previous mark of 13 points set against Sacramento State and San Francisco three days apart in 2016.
HALL DOUBLES UP: Sophomore cell biology major
Cierra Hall posted her first career double-double on Saturday at San Francisco, scoring a season-high 13 points and falling just one rebound shy of her career-high on the glass with 12 against the Dons, notching her fourth double-digit rebounding performance of the season and the fifth of her career. She becomes the third Aggie to post a double-double this season, joining teammates
Sage Stobbart (Sacramento State) and
Kayla Konrad (Nevada), matching the team's total from all of last year.
ROOM TO BOARD: Entering the week ranked among the top 10 in the Big West Conference in three different rebounding categories, including standing sixth in rebounds overall, Hall continued to crash the boards with her 12-rebound effort at San Francisco -- her second double-digit performance in the last three games after posting a career-high 13 boards at Sacramento State. The Cypress, Calif., native is averaging 8.7 rpg over her last seven games, pushing her season average to 7.5 rebounds per contest.
TAKING MATTERS INTO HER OWN HANDS: Usually on the other end of her teammates' scoring exploits, senior psychology major
Kourtney Eaton showed off her scoring flair at San Francisco, tying a career high with 15 points (on a career-high six made baskets) against the Dons to match her output against UC Riverside on March 2, 2017.
SHE'S A HELPER: With the Aggies' all-time record already in hand, Eaton now sets her sights on the most assists by a UC Davis basketball player overall, standing just five shy of breaking Angelo Rivers' mark of 467 set from 1982-86. Rivers led the team in that category in all four of his seasons with the Aggies' men's team, including a high of 152 as a junior.
START ME UP: Of her 111 career appearances in an Aggie uniform, Bertsch has missed only six starts -- all coming during her freshman year -- and enters the week having started the team's last 84 consecutive contests dating back to the "Senior Day" game against CSUN in 2015-16. The Santa Rosa, Calif., native is one of only five players in the program's Division I history to start more than 100 games, joining Kasey Riecks (120), Alyson Doherty (113),
Celia Marfone (109), and Hana Asano (102).
WORKING BEYOND THE ARC: UC Davis has made a three-pointer in 475 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 15, 2003, at Cal State San Bernardino. Since then, UC Davis has hit .346 from beyond the arc (3,212-for-9,293).
CENTURY MARK: The Aggies' 109 points against the Hornets ranked the third-highest point total in school history, the third time that UC Davis has reached 100 points in a game against Sacramento State, and the third time that the Aggies have done so in the Division I era, joining their Dec. 18, 2016, contest against the Hornets (110 points), and the 102 points at San Jose State on Dec. 21, 2010. All time, UC Davis has scored 100 points in a game 10 times, while giving up 100 just four times.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.
AGGIE EVO
Launched in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.
