UC Davis men’s basketball team defeats Cal State Fullerton in Wednesday night game.
The UC Davis men’s basketball team sent the California State University, Fullerton Titans packing in a rare Wednesday night showdown. The Aggies picked up their fourth straight home win, 69-64.
As the game got underway, the Aggies came out with energy and moved the ball well across the court. The defense was solid and the momentum looked to be in favor of the Aggies, who led for the majority of the quarter.
After a timeout by Cal State Fullerton with a little over 12 minutes in the first half, the Titans started to find their groove and went on a 17-4 run in a span of just over seven minutes. The Aggies’ defense slowed down as Fullerton shot lights out, 54.2 percent from the field in the first half.
The Aggies were down at half, 37-35.
The Titans came out with more energy after the break, going on a 7-2 run to start the half. The Aggies fought back and kept things close, but after quick bursts of offense on each side, both teams struggled to get points on the board.
The Aggies continued to play a tough defensive game, and they held the Titans to a 31.8 shooting percentage in the second half.
“We talked a lot about defense at halftime,” said Head Coach Jim Les. “That was the difference, that got us going and got us some separation when we did get hot.”
With both teams knotted up at 47 apiece, freshman guard Siler Schneider hit a three-pointer to give his team the lead. The Aggies never looked back, in big part to junior guard Brynton Lemar,who had a cut lip from the first half after taking an elbow to the face.
Though he struggled in the first half and had some good attempts fall in-and-out, Lemar did not shy away from stepping up for his team.
“Just being one of the team leaders,” Lemar said. “I knew that our team was kind of down and we needed a little offensive spurt so I wanted to just be aggressive.”
Les also gave Lemar the green light in the second half, knowing that he would find the net eventually.
“Our comment was keeping shooting,” Les said.
Lemar did just that, and nailed back-to-back threes, forcing Fullerton to call a timeout with 7:45 remaining in the second half. Lemar followed up with another three at the seven-minute mark to give the Aggies a 10 point lead, putting all momentum in the Aggies’ corner.
Lemar finished the game with 12 points, 10 of which came from the second half. Schneider totaled 15 points, continuing to be an efficient scorer for the Aggies.
The Aggies’ points per game leader, senior forward Josh Fox, scored 19 points and added seven rebounds to the team’s victory. Fullerton’s freshman guard, Khalil Ahmad, finished with a game-high 27 points.
The Aggies are now 3-3 in the Big West Conference. On Saturday, Jan. 30, the Ags look to pick up a fifth straight home victory and add another win to their Big West total, as they face off against Cal Poly at the ARC Pavilion at 5:30 p.m.
Written by MICHAEL MARTINEZ – sports@theaggie.org
