by PointGuard » Tue Jul 04, 2023 12:51 am
Jan. 13: UC Davis Aggies (6-9, 5-1) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (10-4, 5-0)
Rob Benchley, Athletic Director
When working out the schedule with the other Big West AD’s, I didn’t think this would be a game of significance, but damned if it isn’t. Not unsurprisingly, the Aggies did poorly in pre-conference play, but then the team came together and has won 5 of their first 6 Big West contests. The includes winning all 3 of their road games during conference play. The Aggies have been averaging 77.5 ppg in their Big West games while giving up just 72 ppg. C Corey Heideman, was averaging 22.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg in the Aggies first 4 conference games, but then suffered a broken wrist early in their 5th game. Replacing that kind of productivity will be extremely difficult for UC Davis. The Aggies picked up Jayson Miller, a JC transfer, who has become their starting PG and looks pretty strong…he’s hitting 43% of his 3’s and averaging 5.5 apg. With Heideman out of the lineup, their leading scorer is SG Adrian McCoy who’s averaging 12.1 ppg but has to shoot a lot to do so. Andrew Mann is a good interior player averaging 10.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg.
Fred has created a team with so much depth that I think his biggest problem is figuring out which of 12 players will have the hottest hand on any particular night…and once he has, then ride that pony.
Our 5 game win streak has brought out more fans, so there’s a good crowd here at Robert A. Mott Athletics Center. Hopefully that helps invigorate our team and lead to some good runs.
Here we go…we control the tip and work the ball around outside...nice drive by Preston but he’s cut off and it goes back outside…with the shot clock expiring Preston is forced to put up an off-balance 18 footer from the left side that is off the mark…Small grabs an offensive rebound and we work around again…Chambers 15 footer from the right side doesn’t go down but he was fouled on the shot…he makes the first and misses the 2nd and the Aggies pull down the rebound. Preston fouls but the Aggies miss both free throws…two misses by us but 2 offensive rebounds with a final putback by Chambers making it 3-0. We put 12 points on the board before UC Davis gets their first point (on a free throw). Great start! We get 5 steals, 2 blocks, and 5 offensive rebounds in the first 7 minutes and lead 18-3…nice! Fantastic first half with rock-solid D the entire 20 minutes…holding the Aggies shooting to 32% with 10 steals and 7 blocks by our guys. We control the boards 21-13 with 7 offensive rebounds. We hit 48% of our shots and lead 40-23 at halftime. Our only negative was making 9 turnovers. Chambers and Barnes combine for 15 points, 8 boards, 4 steals and 3 blocks. Small has 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks.
Our lead expands to 24 points in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd half with both Small and Barnes in double figures already. WE go up by 30 with 8 minutes remaining…and only some nice shooting by the Aggies’ Adrian McCoy has kept our lead from being even much bigger. With Fred playing our entire bench extensively we hammer UC Davis by a final score of 90-65. We outshot the Aggies 54% to 41% and outrebounded them 41-27.
PG/SG Scotty Lee had 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals; SF Trey Small scored 14 and had 8 rebounds; PF/C Calvis Barnes had 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals; C Dekker Chambers finished with 11 points, 8 boards, 2 steals and 3 blocks; PG Danny Preston scored 10 and had 4 assists; SG Nikolos Ivelitsch scored 8 and dished out 6 assists; and PF/C Victor Collier had 8 points and 5 boards. Adrian McCoy scored 24 points for UC Davis.
The win extends our win streak to 6 games and puts us 1-1/2 games ahead of UC Davis and 2 games ahead of UC Santa Barbara. Our NET Ranking is 22nd best.
Two of our players came out of the game with minor injuries: Victor Collier has a sore back and Nikolos Ivelitsch a sore knee. They both are expected to play in the Mustangs next game, but their playing time may be limited.
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