UC Davis Aggies men and women sweep Hawaii to reach Big West Conference championship games
The UC Davis men’s and women’s basketball teams are one win away from securing NCAA Tournament bids after a semifinal sweep of Hawaii on Friday in the Big West Conference Tournament at Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada.
The No. 5-seeded UC Davis women, playing their third game in three days, beat the top-seeded and two-time defending champion Rainbow Wahine 51-48 with execution down the stretch. The Aggies will make their seventh title game appearance and their first since 2021 under longtime coach Jennifer Gross.
The second-seeded UC Davis men used fast starts to open each half and then held off Hawaii 68-65 to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2017 under veteran coach Jim Les.
UCD led by 16 in the first half, but third-seeded Hawaii closed to within 31-29 at the halftime break. The Aggies started the second half with a 15-2 run, led by as many as 17 points and never lost the lead behind a variety of shots from fifth-year senior guard Elijah Pepper.
Pepper, the school’s all-time leading scorer with more than 2,200 points and the Big West Player of the Year, scored 25 points on runners, running hooks and fadeaway shots. He iced the win with two free throws with 1.8 seconds left after the Rainbow Warriors had a shot to win it.
Guards Kane Milling and Ty Johnson had 14 and 12 points, respectively, for the Aggies, who will face No. 4 Long Beach State for the championship at 6 p.m. Sunday.
For the UCD women, Aggies senior guard Evanne Turner scored 13 points, including a late stepback jumper from beyond the arc. A repeat first-team All-Big West selection and the program’s all-time career leader in 3-point goals, Turner passed Sydnee Fipps for third on the Aggies’ all-time scoring list with 1,644 points
The 3-ball was what won it for the Aggies, who advanced to face No. 2-seeded UC Irvine in the championship game at 3 p.m. Sunday. Eleven of of UCD’s 15 field goals were 3-pointers.
Tova Sabel scored 14 points for the Aggies, including three 3-pointers. Mazatlan Harris scored 13 points, including two free throws with 6.6 seconds to go.
Hawaii shot just 30.8% and committed 16 turnovers.
“I can’t even say how many people we had step up when we needed them,” Gross, the UCD women’s coach, said after the game. “That’s what this whole tournament has been about, a different person each day. (Harris) is not always in that situation late when she was on the line, but she was huge today.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2024 at 5:35 AM.