Teams: UC Davis vs. UC Santa Barbara; vs. Cal Poly
Records: Aggies, 9-11 (4-5); Gauchos, 9-12 (5-4); Mustangs, 12-8 (6-3)
Where: The Pavilion — Davis, Calif.
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m.
Who to watch: The Aggies’ free-throw percentage is nothing too special, but what is most impressive about it is where most of those buckets have come from.
Freshman Molly Greubel has the highest free-throw percentage on the team, sinking 45 out of 54 this season. The Santa Ana, Calif. native pieced together a neat 22 free-throws in a row before missing one last game against UC Irvine.
Greubel has emerged as one of the Aggies’ most prominent offensive presence, seeing that she has scored in every game she has appeared in, with double-digit totals in five of those.
Did you know: The Aggies are averaging close to 700 fans per game at the Pavilion which is quite impressive compared to the number they get when they don’t play on their home court.
When UC Davis plays on other teams’ courts, they pull in crowds of just over 400.
Part of the reason why UC Davis’ home court attendance average is so high is because of the 2,612 fans it brought in when Stanford came to the Pavilion on Nov. 30.
Preview: Despite the Aggies’ sub- .500 overall and conference records, they are by no means out of the race for the Big West conference title.
The Aggies stand at 9-11 and 4-5 in conference, placing them in seventh place in the Big West. Still, two of UC Davis’ wins have been over teams that are ahead of them in conference.
Recently, the Aggies split two weekend games with a victory over Long Beach State and a loss to UC Irvine.
Senior Cortney French provided most of the offensive firepower for the Aggies on the weekend with 37 total points and was aided by sophomore Sydnee Fipps’ 29 points in the first game.
UC Davis has several tough match ups ahead of them. The Aggies have already matched up with both Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara this season, and dropped both games.
The Mustangs took down UC Davis in an extremely tight game by a score of 73-71 back on Jan. 10 and the Gauchos beat the Aggies 58-43 two days later.
Yet, playing at the Pavilion could provide the environment the Aggies need to pull out victories. UC Davis is rounding out the last two games of a four game home-stand as the season nears an end.
Their opponents will definitely provide substantial challenges. The Gauchos’ most recent outing resulted in a victory over Cal State Fullerton, while Cal Poly won its last two games by scoring close to 80 points each game.
The Aggies will have the task of putting points on the board, but this usually spurns from their shut-down defense that, if successful, will provide energy on both sides of the court.
The Aggies stand at seventh place in the conference at the moment, but two victories this weekend could flip the conference standings around.
— Matthew Yuen
