Teams: UC Davis at UC Santa Barbara
Records: Aggies, 7-9 (3-2); Gauchos, 10-6 (5-0)
Where: The Thunderdome – Santa Barbara, Calif.
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Who to watch: After sinking four of five shots from three-point range for a career-high 14 points Saturday night against UC Irvine, freshman Cortney French will be back to work tonight against first-place UCSB.
The Stockton, Calif. native averages a little over nine minutes per game, but played 18 solid minutes against the Anteaters – a trend that should continue so long as the Aggies are only able to suit up eight players per game.
Did you know? The last two regular season matchups between the Aggies and Gauchos have provided two overtime thrillers.
After falling to UCSB at home in the first contest, UC Davis then escaped the Thunderdome with a 59-56 win that helped propel the Aggies to a second-place finish in the Big West Conference.
Preview: One of the areas that did UC Davis in was foul trouble in last week’s 71-59 loss at the hands of Cal State Fullerton, as two players fouled out and 20 fouls were committed as a team.
The Aggies were able to rectify that against UC Irvine, as no UC Davis player fouled out in a 68-56 win over the last place Anteaters.
Sophomore Paige Mintun had 17 points to lead the Aggies and senior Genevieve Costello and freshman Samantha Meggison each contributed 10 points apiece in the win.
However, UC Davis will now shift to playing much tougher opponents this week.
The increased level of competition starts tonight with UCSB. The Gauchos are most recently off of a 55-45 victory over Cal Poly, a game that saw UCSB come back to score 38 second-half points after entering the break down by 12.
The Gauchos are led offensively by senior Lauren Pedersen, who averages 12.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. The Brea, Calif. native also leads her team with 60 assists and 44 steals.
Upending UCSB at the Thunderdome will be a tough task for UC Davis, as the Gauchos are 8-1 overall at home this season, including a perfect 3-0 in conference play.
–Max Rosenblum
