DAVIS, Calif. — The top-seeded UC Davis women's basketball team will get the opportunity to defend its 2019 league tournament title, taking on No. 2-seeded UC Irvine in the championship game of the 2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Women's Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, on Saturday (March 13) at 5 p.m. at Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.
GAME 15 - Big West Tournament Championship Game
WHAT: No. 2 UC Irvine (15-8, 11-4 Big West) vs. No. 1 UC Davis (12-2, 9-1 Big West)
WHEN: Saturday, March 13, 2021
TIME: 5 p.m. PT
WHERE: Las Vegas, Nev.
ARENA: Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay Hotel
TV: ESPN3 (PXP: Trent Rush, ANALYSIS: Dave Miller, SIDELINE: Courtney Sweet)
RADIO: KDVS 90.3 FM (PXP: Greg Wong)
VIDEO STREAMING: ESPN3.com
AUDIO STREAMING: KDVS.org or
TuneIn.com (search for KDVS)
LIVE STATS: BigWest.org
COMPLETE GAME NOTES: UC Davis PDF |
UC Irvine WBB |
Big West WBB
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: Big West.org
ABOUT THE COACHES…
UC DAVIS: Jennifer Gross is in her 10th season (17th overall) at UC Davis with a record of 185-112 (.622).
UC IRVINE: Tamara Inoue is in her fifth season at UC Irvine with a record of 71-77 (.480).
IN THE RANKINGS…
Despite claiming their fifth consecutive Big West title, the Aggies ranked No. 15 in the latest COLLEGE INSIDER mid-major poll released on March 9, moving down four spots from No. 11 the week prior… The No. 11 ranking in the mid-major poll on March 2 is the highest of the season and the highest for the program since the Aggies were ranked No. 8 in the Feb. 27, 2018 poll… UC Davis has been among the top 20 every week this season, extending its run to 16 consecutive weeks dating back to the final 2019-20 poll… The Aggies are ranked No. 75 in the NCAA's NET rankings as of March 8 -- the best of any Big West school (Long Beach State is second at No. 151).
SERIES NOTES…
UC Davis leads the all-time series with UC Irvine by the count of 31-9… The two teams did not meet during the regular season as the scheduled contests on Jan. 8-9 were cancelled due to a Yolo County Health Order that kept the Aggies out of competition… The two teams split the regular season series back in 2020, with both teams holding serve at home…The Aggies have won 11 of the last 12 meetings with the Anteaters, with the UCI victory in 2020 snapping a 10-game UC Davis winning streak in the series.
ABOUT THE ANTEATERS…
The No. 2 seed in this year's tournament, UC Irvine is coming off tournament wins over UC Santa Barbara (92-90) in the quarterfinals and Cal Poly (68-59) in the semifinals… Led by Big West Co-Coach of the Year Tamara Inoue (5th Season), the Anteaters are 15-8 overall and finished 11-4 in Big West play… Big West Freshman of the Year Kayla Williams leads a trio of UCI players in double figures at 14.5 ppg to go along with 4.32 apg and 2.59 spg… Chloe Webb, an all-league honorable mention selection, is second on the team in scoring at 12.0 ppg, grabbing 7.3 rpg and shooting .478 from the floor, while Sophia Locandro is averaging 10.3 ppg and shooting .429 from the field.
AFTER THE SEMIFINALS...
• The defending Big West Tournament champions, UC Davis is coming off a 64-52 victory over No. 5-seeded Hawai'i in Friday's semifinals, improving to 15-10 all-time in the Big West Tournament.
• UC Davis and UC Irvine did not meet during the 2020-21 season as a Yolo County Health Order forced the cancellation of the regular season series originally scheduled for Jan. 8-9 in Davis.
• The Aggies and Anteaters have met four times (2011 first round, 2014 quarterfinals, 2015 first round, 2019 semifinals) previously in the Big West Tournament, with UC Davis posting a 3-1 record.
• The Aggies defeated UCI by an 82-50 score in the semifinals of the 2019 tournament en route to winning the tournament title.
• With Friday's win over Hawai'i, UC Davis has now advanced to the Big West Tournament championship game seven times (2008, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021), but has posted just a 2-4 record in those games with crowns in 2011 and 2019.
• Junior post
Sage Stobbart finished with her third double-double of the year in the semifinals against Hawai'i, scoring 12 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and blocking three more shots.
• Her 11 rebounds were just one shy of the school Big West Tournament record of 12 set by Paige Mintun vs. CSUN in 2009, and tied by Celia Marfone vs. UC Riverside in 2016.
• Stobbart's three blocks give her 38 for the season and 93 for her career, standing just one shy of the single-season top 10 and three back of sixth on the school's all-time list.
• Stobbart's 38 blocks (in 14 games) are now just one shy of her 29-game total for all of last year.
• UC Davis limited the Rainbow Wahine to a .235 field goal percentage in the semifinal -- the lowest by an Aggie opponent this year and the lowest since holding Hawai'i to a .246 field goal percentage on Feb. 22 of last season.
• It marked the seventh time in the last eight games that UC Davis has held an opponent to under 32 percent from the floor, while the 22 percent from beyond the arc by Hawai'i marked the eighth time in the last nine games that an Aggie opponent has failed to break the 30 percent plateau from three-point range.
• Opponents are shooting just .271 (38-for-140) against UC Davis in the Big West Tournament and .298 (152-for-510) overall in the last eight games (7-1 record in those contests), and .205 (36-for-176) from beyond the arc in that same stretch.
AGGIE AWARDS…
• Senior
Cierra Hall becomes the second Aggie in the last three seasons to be named the Big West Conference Player of the Year, joining former teammate
Morgan Bertsch (2019).
• After winning the league's defensive player of the year award as a junior in 2020, Hall becomes only the third player to win both awards in a career in league history, joining CSUN's Channon Fluker and UC Riverside's Kemie Nkele.
• Junior
Sage Stobbart gave UC Davis the league's defensive player of the year for the second straight season, joining Hall and Haylee Donaghe (2010) as Aggie winners of the award.
• Hall and Stobbart were named to the All-Big West First Team -- the third time in the history of the program that UC Davis has landed a pair on the first team in the same season:
Morgan Bertsch and Pele Gianotti were on the first team in 2017, and Bertsch and
Kourtney Eaton accomplished the feat in 2019.
• Stobbart also earned the final conference player of the week award of the regular season on March 8, joining Hall (who won the award twice) as weekly honorees this season.
• Senior
Mackenzie Trpcic picked up her first All-Big West honor after being named to the honorable mention team. She was a third-team All-America East selection as a sophomore at UAlbany before transferring to UC Davis.
• Junior
Kayla Konrad joined Stobbart on the league's all-defensive team, becoming the third and fourth UC Davis players named to that list along with Bertsch (2019) and Hall (2020).
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Over 700 student-athletes across 25 intercollegiate athletics teams, following the addition of equestrian and women's beach volleyball in 2018, represent 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.
