UC Davis men and women fall in Big West championship games, missing NCAA Tournament bids
UC Davis’ hopes of sending one of its basketball teams to the NCAA Tournament came to a frustrating end in Nevada on Saturday night.
The No. 2-seeded UC Davis men lost to upstart No. 4 Long Beach State 74-70 in the Big West Conference Tournament championship game at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada, in a game televised by ESPN2. Earlier in the day, the fifth-seeded UC Davis women fell to second-seeded UC Irvine 53-39 in the tournament final, looking the part of a tired group playing its fourth game in four days.
Tournament MVP Deja Lee led Irvine with 21 points while fifth-year senior guard Evanne Turner finished her Aggies career with 18 points. She bows out as the third-leading scorer in program history. Turner was the only UCD player to reach double figures in scoring. She also had seven rebounds and led all player with 38 minutes played.
The Aggies shot 26%, attempted only six free throws and were outrebounded by 10. They trailed 21-19 at the half before getting outscored 23-4 in the third quarter.
UCD (20-14) was in its seventh conference title game under longtime coach Jennifer Gross. The Aggies beat top-seeded and two-time defending champion Hawaii 51-48 in a semifinal. Turner and teammate Tova Sabel were selected to the all-tournament team.
The UCD men were seeking their second Big West Tournament crown, the last coming in 2017. The Aggies faced a Long Beach State program in its 14th Big West final.
UCD guard Ty Johnson scored a career-high 30 points. Aggies all-time scoring leader and Big West Player of the Year Elijah Pepper had 21 points in his final contest.
The Aggies started the game cold, missing 12 of their first 13 shots, but they led 32-27 at the half. Long Beach State used a 13-2 run to take a 62-59 lead with 5:12 remaining and never lost it.
UC Davis finished 20-14, the most wins for the program since 2018.
Long Beach State staged a spirited run in the tournament. After closing the regular season with a five-game losing streak, including at home to UCD a week earlier, the school on Monday announced that 17-year coaching veteran Dan Monson would not be retained at the end of the season.
Monson was allowed to coach through the tournament. Now, he’s taking the Beach back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
Long Beach State’s leading scorer is Marcus Tsohonis, a guard who had 25 points against UC Davis, including three free throws in the final 30 seconds. Teammate Lassina Traore muscled inside for 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting. The Beach’s roster includes two Sacramento-area players in reserves Varrick Lewis of Monterey Trail and Isa Silva of Jesuit, a transfer from Stanford.
This story was originally published March 17, 2024 at 12:56 PM.