DAVIS, Calif. — Senior biomedical engineering major
Morgan Bertsch became the first UC Davis women's basketball student-athlete to be named the Big West Conference Player of the Year, while Head Coach
Jennifer Gross was named the league's top coach for the third consecutive season, as the conference office announced its postseason honor roll on Monday morning.
Bertsch was joined on the All-Big West first team by senior teammate
Kourtney Eaton, while junior
Nina Bessolo was named to the honorable mention squad. Bertsch also secured a spot on the league's inaugural All-Defensive Team, while Eaton and Bessolo picked up their first career all-conference awards.
In leading the Aggies to their third consecutive Big West Conference regular season title, Gross became the only the second Big West coach to win three straight coach of the year awards and the first since UC Santa Barbara's Mark French did so from 1995-98. Gross is only the fourth head coach in the history of the league to win at least three coach of the year awards during their careers in the Big West, joining French (seven), Hawai'i's Vince Goo (three), and UNLV's Jim Bolla (three).
Gross led UC Davis to a 23-6 overall record and a school-record 15-1 in league play, helping the Aggies become the first conference school to "three-peat" since UC Santa Barbara won 10 consecutive crowns from 1996-2005. UC Davis enters this week's Big West Tournament riding a 14-game winning streak, which is tied for the fifth-longest in school history, and clinching a 20-win season for the third straight year — the program's longest such run since six-straight 20-win campaigns from 1993-99.
One of the nation's top scorers all season long, Bertsch was named to the first team for the third consecutive season and picked up her fourth career All-Big West award — the first Aggie to be so decorated — joining former UC Davis greats Paige Mintun (2008-11) and Sydnee Fipps (2012-15) as the only Aggies to earn three Big West first team awards.
"Morgan is such an unbelievable player and person, taking the basketball aside, she's just one of the most incredible individuals we've had the opportunity to coach," Gross said. "She's put a lot of time and work into her game, but for her to develop herself into a threat, really, from anywhere on the floor is tremendous… and that's just offensively. She's a tremendous defender as well and has really stepped into the role of being a leader for us this year. I'm just so happy for her and all that she's achieved."
Her award gives UC Davis a first-team honoree in every season since joining the league in 2007-08 — the only program in the conference to do so in that span.
The all-time leading scorer in UC Davis men's and women's basketball history, Bertsch enters the tournament ranked fourth on the Big West career scoring list with 2,348 points, standing just 68 points behind Cal State Fullerton's Genia Miller (2,415 points from 1987-91) for third. Scoring in double figures in each of her last 64 contests, Bertsch leads the Big West in scoring at 23.4 points per game, while ranking among the top 10 in three other categories and aiming to become the first Aggie to lead the league in scoring.
Nationally, the Santa Rosa, Calif., native ranks No. 6 in the NCAA in points per game, No. 9 in points, No. 8 in field goals made, and No. 12 in free throws made.
Helping lead the conference's stingiest defense this season, Bertsch is one of five players named to the inaugural All-Defensive Team, swatting a team-high 43 blocks to rank fourth in the Big West with 1.5 blocks per game, while pacing the squad with 39 steals and standing 10th in the conference in defensive rebounds at 4.1 rpg.
As a team, UC Davis is allowing a league-low 56.7 ppg — which also ranks No. 26 in the nation — while standing No. 5 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.345) and No. 12 in the NCAA in three-point percentage defense (.271).
"It has been impressive to see how much we've grown in that area," Gross said. "Honestly, at the beginning of the season, that was something that we weren't sure how good we could get defensively. At some point in the year, we started to see the daily effort pay off. I wouldn't have guessed that this year's team could be better than last year's defensively, but the numbers are showing that we are, so that's exciting."
Eaton gives the Aggies two representatives on the All-Big West first team for the second time in school history — and the first since Bertsch and
Pele Gianotti did so following the 2016-17 campaign. The psychology major from Longview, Wash., enters this week's tournament leading the league in three-point percentage (.449), while standing among the top five in assist-to-turnover ratio (third), assists per game (fourth), and three-pointers per game (fifth).
A two-time Big West All-Academic selection, Eaton broke one of the longest-standing records in UC Davis history, setting the bar for career assists with 541 — a total that ranks tied for seventh on the Big West's career list and just 10 away from the No. 6 spot. She is averaging 7.8 points and 4.71 assists per game, shooting .464 from the floor while ranking tied for sixth on the school's single-season list with 132 assists.
Bessolo is in the midst of a career year, averaging 9.3 points and grabbing 3.8 rebounds per game, shooting 41 percent from the field overall and draining a team-high 53 three-pointers. Having scored in double figures 15 times this season — including a career-high 21 points at Sacramento State on Dec. 7 — the communication major from Hayward, Calif., ranks sixth in the league in three-pointers per game and eighth in three-point percentage entering this week's tournament.
With the top seed and a double-bye into the semifinals of this year's Big West Tournament already in hand, the Aggies will not play until Friday's first semifinal (March 15) at Noon against the lowest remaining seed at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. As the conference's regular season champion, UC Davis has also clinched an automatic berth into the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the third consecutive year, marking the seventh time in 12 Division I seasons that it will compete in the postseason.
2018-19 ALL-BIG WEST CONFERENCE TEAMS
Player of the Year: Morgan Bertsch, UC Davis
Freshman of the Year: Justina King, Long Beach State
Coach of the Year: Jennifer Gross, UC Davis
Best Sixth Player: Amiee Book, Cal State Fullerton
Best Defensive Player: Channon Fluker, CSUN
Best Hustle Player: Dye Stahley, Cal Poly
FIRST TEAM
Morgan Bertsch, UC Davis
Kourtney Eaton, UC Davis
Channon Fluker, CSUN
Jannon Otto, UC Riverside
Jordan Sanders, UC Irvine
Daeja Smith, Cal State Fullerton
SECOND TEAM
Marina Ewodo, UC Riverside
Naomi Hunt, Long Beach State
Tia Kanoa, Hawai'i
Serafina Maulupe, CSUN
Coco Miller, UC Santa Barbara
HONORABLE MENTION
Nina Bessolo, UC Davis
Shanaijah Davison, Long Beach State
Malou De Kergret, UC Riverside
Courtney Middap, Hawai'i
Danae Miller, UC Santa Barbara
Raina Perez, Cal State Fullerton
Lauren Saiki, UC Irvine
Leah Salanoa, Hawai'i
Dye Stahley, Cal Poly
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Amiee Book, Cal State Fullerton
Jordyn Jackson, CSUN
Daphne Gnago, UC Riverside
Myrrah Joseph, Hawai'i
Justina King, Long Beach State
Maddie Willett, Cal Poly
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Morgan Bertsch, UC Davis
Marina Ewodo, UC Riverside
Channon Fluker, CSUN
Eliza Matthews, CSUN
Dye Stahley, Cal Poly
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.
