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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – UC Davis won three games in a row prior to its bye week, and it showed no rust following its brief break when it faced Cal Poly in Friday afternoon's game at the Mott Athletics Center.
 
Down 16-11 at the 8:56 mark of the first half, the Aggies' offense caught fire, scored 16 unanswered points, and held the host Mustangs scoreless over a 4:50 timespan to take a 34-25 lead at the half.
 
Once UC Davis pushed its lead to double-digits, that margin held for most of the second half as the Aggies held CP to a season-low points total for an opponent with their 69-61 victory, extending the team's current win streak to four games in the process.
 
By collecting its eighth win in a row against the Mustangs, UC Davis will enter Saturday's 2 p.m. series finale in San Luis Obispo with a 7-6 overall and 4-3 Big West record. Cal Poly is now 3-16 and 1-12, respectively.

Damion Squire led a quartet of Aggie double-digit scorers with 14 points; by hitting half of his four baskets from three, Caleb Fuller finished with 12; Elijah Pepper and Ezra Manjon also posted 12 points apiece. In his UC Davis debut, freshman Francesco Borra hit 2 of 3 shots from the floor and recorded a rebound, an assist and steal throughout his 12 minutes played. 
 
Trailing by five just past the midway mark of the first half, Fuller started his team's game-changing scoring run by hitting a three, followed a Cameron Ba free throw and another two points scored at the line from Manjon, which gave the Aggies the lead for the rest of the afternoon.

Five consecutive points from Squire — after sinking a three, he connected on a pair of shots from the stripe — pushed the Aggies' scoring run to 11 unanswered. That run was capped by an additional two free throws from Pepper and another Squire three, which made it 27-16, UC Davis, with 4:06 left in the half.

While the Aggies were lighting up the scoreboard on their end of the court, Cal Poly struggled against their defense, which held the home team scoreless for five minutes and 12 seconds and forced it to commit six turnovers while UC Davis' run grew with each passing minute.
 
Even though the Mustangs pulled within five with 1:43 remaining in the game, by scoring five straight which cut their 10-point deficit in half, the Aggies pulled away once again by coming up with timely defensive stops and taking advantage of their trips to the line.
 
Throughout the final two minutes, Cal Poly was faced with a dilemma: Throughout UC Davis final set of possessions, should it stop the clock by fouling the Big West's top-ranked free throw-shooting team, or watch the Aggies waste as much time as possible on each trip to their half of the floor? Once that decision was made, Squire and Kennedy Koehler colletively scored their team's last five points on free throws to secure the win.

As a team, the Aggies shot 87 percent at the free throw line by hitting 20 of 23 attempts. 
 
In addition to Scott Marsh's broadcast on Sports 1140 KHTK, a video stream of Saturday's 2 p.m. mid-afternoon matchup is available on BigWest.TV.
 
 
 
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Over 700 student-athletes across 25 intercollegiate athletics teams, following the addition of equestrian and women's beach volleyball in 2018, are enrolled in 71 of more than 100 academic programs at the fifth-ranked public school in the nation.
 
Centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and the Napa Valley, UC Davis is known nationwide as a leader in Title IX gender equity and leadership, ranks annually in the top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility and offers an unrivaled student-athlete experience that features the ideal combination of elite academics, Division I athletics and personal growth.
 
UC Davis is uncommonly committed to preparing student-athletes for life after graduation with Aggie EVO — an innovative student-athlete outcomes program that helps young women and men develop passions, gain real-world experience, and enjoy a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school. Through Aggie EVO, Intercollegiate Athletics provides unmatched resources and a vast network of working professionals to ensure post-graduation success for its student-athletes.