Davis, Calif. - Fresh off a season-opening win over the Mountain West Conference's Utah State Aggies, UC Davis returns for it's first home game of the season at University Credit Union Center.
Who: Eastern Washington
Where: Davis, Calif.
When: Friday, Nov. 12, 2 p.m.
Tickets: https://ucdavisaggies.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetGroupList?groupCode=MB&linkID=twucd&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode=
Watch: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401372329?gameId=401372329&sourceLang=en
Listen: https://tunein.com/radio/Sports-1140-KHTK-s33038/
Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=370479
Gameday Safety Protocols: https://ucdavisaggies.com/feature/INDOORSAFETYINFO
LAST TIME FOR THE AGGIES
It's hard to imagine a more thrilling way for the Aggies to start the season than Tuesday's win 72-69 win over Utah State.
Leading 40-35 at the half, UC Davis held serve with the other Aggies throughout a back and forth second half that saw UC Davis' experience show up in a big way.
Ezra Manjon scored six of this 12 points in the final two minutes and
Elijah Pepper hit a three with 14 seconds left that gave UC Davis an innsurmountable 70-66 lead. Utah came back to hit a three on the other end but Manjon remained cool and sank two free throws with less than a second remaining to clinch the season-opening win.
Pepper led UC Davis with 16 points and added five assists and three steals.
Christian Anigwe hit double figures in the first half and finished with 14 and six rebounds while Manjon added eight rebounds and four assists to his stat line.
Making his Aggie debut,
Kane Milling scored 11, including a three just before the half to put UC Davis up five, and went 3-5 from deep.
Utah State were held to 36.1 percent shooting and over half its turnovers were the result of UC Davis steals.
ONE TO GO
With 299 career wins, head coach
Jim Les has a chance to achieve his 300th win on Friday.
Les spent the first nine years of his career at his alma mater, Bradley, where he compiled a 154-140 record. In his 11th season as head coach of the Aggies, Les has 145 wins.
Tuesday against Utah State also marked Les' 600th career game coached.
EASTERN WASHINGTON AT A GLANCE
While UC Davis prevailed over their Mountain West opponent to begin the season, the Eagles fell to Nevada 76-91 on Tuesday to begin there's.
They were led in that game by San Francisco State transfer Linton Acliese III, who led the Eagles with 19 points and 12 rebounds. He was joined in double figures by forward Angelo Allegri with 13, and forward Ethan Price and guard Steele Venters with 12.
Eastern Washington returns six from last season's team that went 16-8 and 12-3 in the Big Sky Conference, good for second. Joining that group are 12 newcomers, five of whom are transfers.
The Eagles are led by David Riley in his first season leading Eastern Washington. Though the coaching staff is entirely new, Riley is no stranger to Eastern Washington. He first joined the Eagles as director of basketball operations proior to the start of the 2011-12 season and has spent the last seven seasons as an assistant coach.
PRESEASON PICKS
Sophomore
Ezra Manjon was named to the 2021-22 Preseason All-Big West Coaches' Team and Preseason All-Big West Media Team while fellow sophomore
Elijah Pepper joined him on the Media Team.
UC Davis is the only school to feature two players on the Preseason All-Big West Media Team. Pepper also appeared on multiple ballots for the Preseason All-Big West Coaches' Team.
As a team, the Aggies were picked to finish fourth in both the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll and the Preseason Media Poll.
Both Manjon and Pepper were named to the Big West All-Conference Second Team last season.
Manjon, who was the Big West's 2019-20 Freshman of the Year, leads a surging young squad that despite featuring no seniors and just two juniors has plenty of chemistry with multiple years at the Division I level together.
Pepper and Manjon in particular have grown into one of the more dynamic duos in the conference with Manjon finishing fourth in the Big West at 15.6 points per game and Pepper seventh at 14.7 in 2020-21. No other school had two players inside the top seven in scoring last season.
They were two of just three Aggies to start all 18 games last season, leading UC Davis in nearly every offensive category. Pepper emerged as one of the most lethal three-point threats in the conference shooting .446 from deep with his 37 threes second in the Big West while Manjon continued to establish himself as an electric finisher, going over 20 points four times.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
The 2021-22 Aggies may be young academically but they are from it on the court.
12 of this season's 15 players on roster are underclassmen but nine of them have collegiate experience, led by Manjon and Pepper.
