UC Davis cruises past UC Irvine for spot in the Big West championship game

Morgan Bertsch has been leading the UC Davis women’s basketball team all year, so it tracks that she took a starring role in the Aggies’ 82-50 win over UC Irvine on Friday in the Big West Tournament semifinals.

Bertsch, the Big West player of the year, poured in 25 points and grabbed in eight rebounds as UC Davis moved into Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. championship game, where they’ll play the winner of Friday’s game between No. 3 UC Riverside and No. 2 Hawaii.

Bertsch scored 14 points in the first half, grabbed five rebounds and doled out two assists to jumpstart the Aggies, who had a 45-30 halftime lead. Teammate Kourtney Eaton also scored 14 points in the first half and Cierra Hall had 12 points as the Aggies cruised to their 15th-straight win.

UC Davis shot 53.8 percent from the floor, including 46.6 from behind the three-point line. UC Irvine hit 25 percent of its shots and just 10.5 percent from long range.