Teams: UC Davis vs. Cal Poly; vs. UC Santa Barbara
Records: Aggies 15-5 (5-3); Mustangs 12-7 (8-0); Gauchos 11-9 (5-3)
Where: The Pavilion
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m.
Who to watch: Sophomore Vicky Deely has returned to full form after a string of minor injuries hampered her for a few weeks, taking her out of her rhythm.
Deely found her shooting stroke on Saturday as she scored 23 points in the second half of the Aggies matchup with UC Irvine. Deely shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field. UC Davis is glad to have her scoring touch back.
“On Saturday she looked like she did at times earlier in the season,” said coach Sandy Simpson. “It’s nice to have her feeling her oats again.”
Did you know? Last Saturday was the first time in 2011 that both the men’s and women’s basketball teams won on the same day.
The women’s team notched a 19 point victory over UC Irvine on the road as the men’s squad won a double overtime thriller over the Anteaters.
Preview: This week’s games will pit the Aggies against the best the Big West Conference has to offer.
The Aggies will start the week with a rematch against conference leader Cal Poly.
The Mustangs defeated the Aggies earlier in the season, largely due to a 31-point effort from Rachel Clancy.
In this matchup UC Davis plans to approach the game differently.
“We’re not going to get beat the same way twice,” Simpson said. “[Clancy] is a difficult player to defend and we will make some adjustments for this game.”
If the Aggies are able to beat the Mustangs, they will be on their way to accomplishing one of their remaining regular season goals.
“We want to beat every team in the league at least once,” Simpson said, “because when you get to the tournament you want them to know that you can beat them. For us that means we want to beat Cal Poly, UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton.”
Following their contest with the Mustangs, the Aggies will host the Gauchos in a rematch of a UC Davis 63-55 win earlier in the season.
One of the few negatives in the previous matchup was that the Aggies were out-rebounded in the contest by 16.
More importantly in Simpson’s mind, however, is the fact that UC Davis conceded offensive rebounds on over 50 percent of UCSB’s misses.
“We would like to be able to hold a team to 33 percent or fewer,” he said. “We play a zone so our numbers are going to be a little skewed, but we make up for it by forcing turnovers.”
– Trevor Cramer
