The UC Davis women’s basketball team had quite an up-and-down weekend of games. The Aggies took down the then-fourth place team in the conference, but dropped a tough contest to the last place UC Irvine.
The game against Long Beach State featured teams that had both won their two most recent games, and it turned out to be a back-and-forth game until the end.
After taking down the 49ers on Thursday — a confidence booster, no doubt — UC Davis came out flat against UC Irvine and lost by a 13-point margin.
With the split weekend, UC Davis moves to 9-11 with a 4-5 record in the Big West Conference.
Thursday — UC Davis 68, Long Beach State 62
Coming off two road wins, the Aggies brought the momentum back home to the Pavilion on Thursday when they took down Long Beach State.
The 49ers brought a 4-3 conference record into the game, but the Aggies clawed their way to a victory.
The two teams battled for the duration of the game, which consisted of 15 lead changes and 12 different instances in which the game was tied.
UC Davis went into the half down one point 35-34, but limited LBSU to 27 second-half points. While shutting down the 49ers, UC Davis put up an identical number to their first half to round out the 68-62 victory.
The teams battled back and forth until freshman Alyson Doherty made a layup with 1:41 left in the game, giving the Aggies a lead that they held onto for the remaining time.
Sophomore Sydnee Fipps dropped a career-high 29 points, which included a perfect six-for-six from the free-throw line. Supplementing Fipps was senior Cortney French’s shot from the outside. French drained five three-pointers and put away both of her free-throw attempts.
Saturday — UC Irvine 70, UC Davis 57
French had the hot hand for UC Davis in Saturday’s game against the Anteaters, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Aggies to victory over the last place team in the Big West.
Despite French’s 20 points, a product of a career-high six long-range buckets, the Aggies couldn’t do much else to find the basket. Fipps had a particularly cold night, only managing three points in her 29 minutes of play.
Unfortunately for UC Davis, they fell behind early and never recovered. The game stood at 11-0 until French knocked down a three-pointer over six minutes into the game. The Aggies battled back and came within five at halftime when the score stood at 30-25, but the relentless UC Irvine team kept the UC Davis shooters at bay.
Across the board, UC Davis shot 31.5 percent.
One highlight for UC Davis was freshman Molly Greubel’s 12 points, which gave her 22 points over the two weekend games. Greubel went 6-7 from the charity stripe and had 22 consecutive free-throws before missing one against the Anteaters.
French brought her weekend total to 37 with her big performance on Saturday.
The win was the first Big West conference victory for the Anteaters, who now stand at 5-16 overall with a 1-8 league record.
The Aggies, after winning three conference games in a row, dropped the decision to UC Irvine. UC Davis’ 4-5 record puts it tied for sixth place with the 49ers.
UC Davis will continue its four-game home stand this week, as it hosts UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
MATTHEW YUEN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
