Henderson, Nev. - UC Davis stormed back in the third quarter against UC Irvine on Friday afternoon but fell 84-75 in overtime, ending its Big West Conference Tournament run at the semifinal round in Henderson, Nev.
Evanne Turner led UC Davis with 22 points and the Aggies got double-doubles from Cierra Hall and Sage Stobbart in their final games in UC Davis uniforms. Hall had 20 points and 14 rebounds while Stobbart had 15 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and a block. Sydney Burns had six points, three rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals.
The Aggies entered halftime with a 31-22 deficit after shooting 33 percent in the first half. UC Davis continually chipped away at that deficit in the third quarter though.
A 9-0 run late in the period cut UC Irvine's lead to 45-44 with 1:29 left in the third and a three by Lena Svanholm gave the Aggies a 47-46 lead with 49 seconds until the fourth.
A 6-0 run consisting of a jumper by Turner, steal and lay-up on the break by Kayla Konrad, and a lay-up by Hall made it 59-54 with 4:12 left in regulation but the Anteaters responded with five straight of their own to tie it at 59 with 2:34 remaining.
UC Davis responded with a lay-up by Stobbart to retake the lead and a lay-up with the and-one free throw from Hall one possession later saw the Aggies up 64-61 with 55 seconds to go. One free throw on the other end made it 64-62 and UC Irvine forced a steal with 25 seconds left to set up a final bucket by the Anteaters to force overtime at 64-64.
The Anteaters opened the overtime period on a 10-2 run and went on to go 4-4 and 10-14 from the line to pull away.
The Aggies were attempting to win a historic sixth straight Big West title, already the only team in school history to win five straight regular season titles. In fact, only UConn, Baylor and Gonzaga have stretches of conference dominance comparable to UC Davis over the last six seasons as the other three schools to the NCAA to have won at least five straight conference regular season titles.
UC Davis will see three pillars of those championships depart to graduation in Hall, Konrad and Stobbart while Turner and Burns will return to help start a new streak.