In addition to the team’s dominance, center Megan Norris recently broke multiple rebounding records
By COLINA HARVEY— sports@theaggie.org
The season for the UC Davis women’s basketball team is winding down, with only one more regular season game remaining. The team just recently earned its 20th win, marking three seasons in a row where they have won 20 or more games. They currently hold the second-best conference record in the Big West and are on a five-game winning streak. The Aggies are aiming to finish the season strong and make a statement in the postseason.
On Feb. 12, the Aggies played UC San Diego (UCSD) Tritons at home. At the time, UCSD held the top spot in the Big West, boasting a 12-1 conference record. Their only conference loss was on Jan. 22 against the Aggies.
“We had a little bit of pressure on us,” Sahana Kanagasabay, a third-year human development major, said. “You know, we’re the team that was able to beat [UCSD]. So I think coming in, we all were just super hyping ourselves up and really focusing on what exactly led us to success the first time.”
In the first quarter, the Tritons came out strong, leading by seven points. However, the Aggies did not let them run away with the lead, lowering the deficit to one point by the end of the quarter. In the second quarter, the Aggies stayed tight with the Tritons until UCSD went on a six-point run in the last two minutes, ending the half with a six-point lead.
The Tritons built on their lead in the third quarter, scoring a lot of points in the paint and creating a 13-point lead — the largest of the game.
The Aggies fought to come back, with Avery Sussex, a second-year undeclared program major, leading the effort. A layup followed by back-to-back 3-pointers by Sussex reduced the Triton lead to seven points. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Nya Epps, a fourth-year communication major, closed out the quarter, leaving the Aggies trailing by five points.
In the fourth quarter, a layup by Victoria Baker, a fifth-year sociology major, and a 3-pointer by Sussex tied the game up at 50-50. The two teams traded baskets to tie the game again at 57-57, with 38 seconds to go. Epps attempted a layup for the lead with seven seconds to go, but was blocked. UCSD tried to go for a layup to win the game, but also missed, sending the game to overtime.
The start of overtime was looking bleak for the Aggies; they turned over the ball on their first possession and then allowed the Tritons to go on a 6-point run. However, UCSD started missing shots, and a layup by Baker — followed by a 3-pointer by Epps — tied the game up once again. With the game tied at 65-65, Megan Norris, a fifth-year political science major, had the chance to lay it in and win the game. However, she was not able to capitalize, sending the game to double overtime.
In double overtime, both teams were playing aggressively and making shots. With less than a minute to go, the Aggies held a one-point lead. However, a foul by UC Davis — with 14 seconds left — allowed UCSD to tie the game up by making one out of two free throws. The Aggies had the last possession, but were unable to get a shot off, sending the game to triple overtime for the first time in program history.
“Fatigue was coming into play, but I think we just had so much drive as a team,” Kanagasabay said. “Every time we kept going into overtime, it was kind of the mentality of like, ‘We’ve gotten this far, this is kind of our win. We’re not losing this now,’ and that’s what our Coach [Jennifer Gross] kept reiterating during the time outs.”
In triple overtime, the score stayed close once again. With less than a minute to go, Sussex made a stellar 3-pointer to put the Aggies ahead by three. With 34 seconds left, UCSD missed a 3-pointer and Norris secured the rebound. The Tritons resorted to fouling the Aggies for a chance to catch up, but Ryann Bennett, a second-year psychology major, netted both free throws, sealing the win for the Aggies. The final score was 88-80, and the game was one of the Aggies’ biggest wins of the season.
In addition to the win, Norris recorded 29 rebounds, which is the most in a game in program history and Big West conference history. She also gained her 302nd rebound of the season, setting the record for most rebounds in a season in program history.
Epps and Sussex both contributed big numbers, scoring over 20 points. Baker recorded 19 points, which was a career high for her.
“It’s kind of easy to cut yourself a little bit of slack if you’re playing a really strong team,” Kanagasabay said. “But I don’t think there’s a single person on our team or on our staff who thinks like that, which is really important.”
The Aggies’ next home game was against the California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) Titans, and although CSUF is a strong team in the Big West, they were no match for the Aggies.
“A big thing about Fullerton is they had a really good press, like a defensive full-court press and we really focused on that throughout the week,” Kanagasabay said. “So getting past that press was the first part, and once we got past it, we wanted to make sure we were making use of that. We didn’t want to do all that work to break the press and then not have a good half-court offense.”
The Aggies held a steady, 10-point lead for the duration of the first half. In the third quarter, the Titans caught up and the teams traded leads. At the end of the third, the Aggies trailed by one. Finally, in the fourth, the Aggies quickly upped their lead to nine after 3-pointers from Norris and Epps. They were able to hold on to that lead and finish it out with a final score of 70-64. Epps was the leading scorer of the game with 19 points, and Norris had a double-double, with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Norris also hit 1,000 career rebounds, becoming only the second to do so in program history.
On Feb. 21, the Aggies had another home game, this time against the UC Riverside Highlanders. The Aggies built up a lead in the first half, leading by 10 in the second quarter. However, the Highlanders went on a 14-4 run to tie the game up at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Aggies created another 10 point lead; at the end of the quarter they led by seven. In the fourth, they maintained that lead and the game ended with a final score of 66-55, marking the Aggies’ fifth straight win.
“We’ve done a really good job at recognizing, in the games that we’ve lost […] why that happened,” Kanagasabay said. “We’re really emphasizing the importance of learning from a mistake and the importance of not making it again.”
The Aggies last game of the season will be an exciting home game against the current best team in the conference, the UC Irvine (UCI) Anteaters, on March 7.
“All the teams are struggling with fatigue, and you know, it’s a long season,” Kanagasabay said. “So I think we’re just focusing on what we have and what we have to prove. It’s our last year in the Big West, and we want to go out with a bang […] we’ve made the finals the past two years, but fell short, so I feel like we have an extra kind of chip on our shoulders to really get that win.”
Currently, the Aggies are second in the Big West standings, with UCI in first place. If the Aggies can clinch either the first or second seed, they will get a two-round bye in the Big West Championship, sending them straight to the semifinals.
Written by: Colina Harvey — sports@theaggie.org
