MALIBU, Calif. —
Ryann Bennett finished off her sophomore season with a 21 point performance in UC Davis women's basketball's 68-71 loss to Pepperdine in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday, Mar. 19.
Score: UC Davis 68, Pepperdine 71
Location: Malibu, Calif. (Firestone Fieldhouse)
Records: UC Davis 23-11, Pepperdine 20-12
OPENING TIP
- Bennett scored 20+ in a single game for the eighth time this season.
- She also finished the night with a career-high three blocks.
- Avery Sussex was a sniper from beyond the arc with three made treys that helped give her 16 points.
- Defensively, she was also fantastic with five steals, coming just one shy of tying her career-high.
- Senior Nya Epps was the third and final double-digit scorer on the night, also scoring three triples for 15 points.
- In her final game as an Aggie, Megan Norris dropped a career-best seven assists to go along with seven boards. She finishes her career with 1,072 rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- A minute into the contest, Norris opened the scoring for both teams with a layup inside.
- The Aggies jumped out to an early lead in the first using a balanced attack from Bennett, Epps, and Sussex to go up by as much as five.
- After the Waves tied the game at nine apiece, a 6-0 run gave the road team another lead to continue the back-and-forth affair.
- A three from Pepperdine put them up one with two minutes left in the quarter, but points from Bennett and Norris gave UC Davis a 21-19 advantage after the first.
- With both teams exchanging one point leads into the second period, a three from Sussex put her team up two with four minutes to go.
- One minute later, a three from Pepperdine gave them their biggest lead of the quarter with a 35-32 advantage.
- A layup from Tegan Young put the Aggies back within a point, but a last second score put the home team up 39-36 heading into the locker room.
- Coming back out for the second half, Epps snatched the lead back with her first made three.
- Off the bench, Emmy Ersdala dropped in a trey to tie things up at 46 halfway through the period.
- Sussex used another three to give her team a two point lead with 32 seconds to go, and despite a score from the Waves that lead held as the Aggies entered the final period.
- With the road team down eight with 1:48 left in regulation, Sussex looked to spark a comeback with three made foul shots to cut the lead to five.
- Following a miss from their opponent, the Aggies came out of a timeout to give Sussex her third three of the night to put them back within two.
- A perfectly timed steal from Epps was followed by a quick layup from Bennett, tying the contest with just six seconds remaining.
- On the final possession of the game, Pepperdine squared up a three at the buzzer, ending the Aggies season with a 68-71 loss.
ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS:
UC Davis, ranked No. 2 among public universities by the Wall Street Journal in the value of a college degree, is home to 40,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 employees. Ranked top in the United States in agriculture and forestry as well as No. 1 in veterinary medicine, UC Davis is located in a true California college town nestled between world-class destinations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports, with 16 sports transitioning to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026–27.
For more information, visit
https://ucdavisaggies.com/.
