DAVIS, Calif. — One final home game at the University Credit Union Center looms for UC Davis men's basketball, as the Aggies prepare to host Hawai'i for Senior Night tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. (PT).

The Aggies will be honoring the careers of Sam Manu, Niko Rocak, Kane Milling, Ade Adebayo, and Elijah Pepper at the start of the game. The five graduating seniors will also be addressing the crowd post-game.

Feb. 29 vs. Hawai'i | 6 p.m. Tip-off (Davis, Calif.) | ESPN+
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LAST TIME
UC Davis split last week's set of road games, winning a nail-biter against CSUN, 66-65 thanks to a pair of go-ahead free throws from Ty Johnson. The win over CSUN clinched a berth to Henderson and the Big West Championship for the Aggies who are firmly in the hunt for a top-two seed entering the final two weeks of regular season play.

With a balanced offensive attack against the Matadors, the team had three players who scored 10 or more points. Johnson in addition to his game-winning free throws, recorded 24 points, five assists and three steals in a dominant performance. Leo DeBruhl matched his career-best with 14 points as a spark plug from the bench, while Kane Milling contributed 11 points and six rebounds to the victory.

Against Cal State Bakersfield, the Aggies were stifled by the Roadrunners. Despite another strong performance from Johnson who had 22 points, UC Davis struggled to generate makes from the field, and leaned on their free throw making all night. Credit to Cal State Bakersfield, the Roadrunners put forth one of their best performances of the season to top the Aggies, having four players reach double figures.

AGGIES IN THE RANKINGS

• #25 in NCAA in Turnovers Forced Per Game.
• Pepper ranked #29 in NCAA in Points Per Game, #19 in Three-Pointers Per Game.
• Ty Johnson and Pepper entered the season as the top returning backcourt scoring duo in the country and both are top-10 in the Big West in scoring this season.
• In Conference Only statistics, the Aggies rank:
  • #1 in steals
  • #2 in opponent field goal percentage
  • #2 in scoring defense
• 13-1 in games in which Aggies are tied for or lead in rebounding battle.
• Elijah Pepper also is averaging a conference leading 20.0 points per game. He was also announced as one of the 40 names to the 2023-24 Lou Henson mid-season Watch List.
• Ty Johnson is top-10 in the conference in all assist categories during conference play.
• Niko Rocak ranks first in the conference in blocks per game during conference play.
• Pepper and Johnson are the lone players in Big West action to be averaging two or more steals.
• Ty Johnson and Elijah Pepper entered this season as the top returning scoring backcourt in all of the NCAA and this season are ranked third in all of the country in points per game as a guard duo (37.3 PPG between the pair).
• Johnson and Pepper are the only players during Big West play averaging over two steals per game with Pepper's 2.3 leading the conference followed close by Johnson's 2.1 per game.

ELIJAH PEPPER RECORD WATCH

• Pepper is the all-time leading scorer in Aggie history with 2,163 points and counting.
• He sits at second all-time in the Big West's history of leading scorers and trails the Big West career scoring record by just 150 points, a record held by Lucious Harris (LBSU, 122 games - 1989-93).
• Pepper is also now UC Davis' holder for the all-time career steals record sitting atop the list with 222 in his career. He achieved the feat when the Aggies faced UC Riverside on Jan. 4. He set a single-game career-high mark of his recently in the Aggies win over CSUN, recording seven steals. This trails Johnson's Division I single-game record for most steals in a game by just one.
• The all-time program leading scorer will play his 60th and final home game of his career against the Rainbow Warriors. This season alone, Pepper is averaging more than 20 ppg in home contests.

DEFENSIVE IMPACT
Niko Rocak has been one of the most impactful defenders in Big West play, as seen by him breaking a single game school-record with six blocks in the Aggies win against UC Irvine on Jan. 20. The six blocks leads the conference for most in a game this season.

Ty Johnson and Elijah Pepper sit atop the Big West ranks for most steals per game in conference, play. The pair are the only two players averaging more than two steals per game.

These efforts have helped fuel the Aggies defensive presence the entire season, with UC Davis ranking 25th in turnovers forced per game.


ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Hawai'i is led by Eran Ganot and feature one of the most talented and experienced teams in the conference. Playing their best basketball as of late, the Rainbow Warriors have won six of their last eight contests. Surging all the way up to sixth in the Big West standings, Hawai'i has seen monster performances from Justin McKoy recently, who's averaging 19.4 mpg, and 6.6 rpg during Hawai'i's latest 4-1 stretch of games.

In the earlier matchup between these two teams, Hawai'i downed the Aggies 87-70 in Honolulu, led by McKoy that game, who eventually would go on to be announced as the Big West Player of the Week for his efforts during the week of Feb. 12. In the all-time series, UC Davis trails Hawai'i 14-9.