Teams: UC Davis vs. Cal State Bakersfield
Records: Aggies, 9-16; Roadrunners 16-10
Where: The Pavilion
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Who to watch: Due to their balanced offensive attack, one is never sure which Aggie is going to lead the team in scoring.
This weekend, it was freshman Kasey Riecks, who scored 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting – 4-for-6 from beyond the arc – in a 62-47 loss against Cal Poly.
The Auburn, Calif. native averages 8.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
Did you know? The Roadrunners have a 7-1 all-time series lead over the Aggies. UC Davis‘ lone victory came in the 2000-2001 season, the first-ever meeting between the two squads.
The last matchup between UC Davis and Cal State Bakersfield occurred in the 2003-2004 campaign – the last year the Aggies faced exclusively Division II teams.
Preview: A week after sweeping a weekend series at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, UC Davis matched up with Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, two of the top three teams in the Big West Conference standings.
Things didn’t go too well for the Aggies, as the play of the Mustangs and Gauchos was too much to overcome.
Cal Poly had a seven-point lead at halftime and pulled away in the second period of play with the help of senior Megan Harrison, who scored a game-high 28 points on 11-for-23 shooting.
UCSB, the No. 1 team in the conference, then came into the Pavilion. UC Davis matched their intensity – for the first 24 minutes of play.
Freshman Hana Asano hit a baseline fall-away jumper to tie the game at 34 with 16:31 remaining. The Gauchos then went on an 11-0 run to put the game away.
UC Davis will welcome a Cal State Bakersfield team that has faced seven of the nine Big West teams this season. They’ll face the remaining two by season’s end.
“[Cal State Bakersfield] is solid,” said coach Sandy Simpson. “They have Division I level guards and are in the transition into Division I. Their guard [Cristine] Kepenekian is not really tall, but is really aggressive and goes for double-doubles all the time.
“They are a nice team. They have some seniors that are pretty good and they are going to be a handful.”
Kepenekian, a senior from Burbank, Calif., leads the Roadrunners‘ offense, scoring 17.3 points and grabbing 8.5 rebounds per contest.
– Max Rosenblum
