Davis, Calif. — In a battle between the two highest scoring offenses in the Big West, the UC Davis Men's Basketball Team (7-7, 0-2) dropped Thursday night's game against the visiting UC Irvine Anteaters (9-5, 2-0) by a score of 88-83.
Jumping out to a quick five point lead with baskets from Christian Anigwe and Ty Johnson, the Aggies would go back and forth with the 'Eaters for most of first half. Anigwe was finding ways to score at all three-levels in the first half, going 4-5 from the field and hitting a three pointer in the process. Elijah Pepper got it going early on as well having a team-high 10 points going into the half.
With the offenses going back and forth, UC Irvine would respond with a run of their own during the final five minutes of the half and find themselves up on the Aggies 42-35 after 20 minutes. Much of the same would continue during the second half with both offenses trading buckets as UC Irvine's Bent Leuchten would lead the Anteaters finishing the night with 31 points on 12-15 FG.
Extending their halftime lead all the way to 12 points just five minutes into the second half, Johnson would do his best to claw the Aggies back into the game scoring a flurry of buckets to bring the Anteater lead down to just one point at the 12 minute Media Timeout.
Even with the 20 point second half barrage from Johnson, who finished the night with 25 points, Leucthten along with timely buckets from his teammates proved to be too much.
The Aggies would finish the game shooting 51.9% from the field and 43.5% from three. UC Davis finished the night with 30 rebounds and this is just the second time this year that the Ags have lost when out-rebounding their opposition.
Along with Johnson, two other Aggies reached double figures on the night with Pepper scoring 27, while Anigwe scored an efficient 13 points dealing with foul trouble for most of the night.
UP NEXT
The Aggies return to action on Saturday, Jan. 7 as they are set to host CSU Bakersfield. Tip off is scheduled for 5 P.M. PT at the University Credit Union Center.
