THE SHORT STORY: Behind a stifling defensive effort and a dominant showing on the glass, UC Davis cruised to a 71-54 victory over Long Beach State on Saturday afternoon at the University Credit Union Center. The Aggies led wire-to-wire, using a 13-0 first-half run to break the game open and never looking back to secure their ninth conference win of the season.<\/p>\n
COURT SIDE<\/p>\n
HOW IT HAPPENED<\/p>\n
UP NEXT
\n\tMarcus Wilson<\/a> led all scorers with 18 points, shooting 7-of-13 from the field while filling the stat sheet with 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks.
\n\tNiko Rocak<\/a> was a force in the paint, finishing just shy of a double-double with 9 points, a game-high 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals.
\n\tConnor Sevilla<\/a> added 10 points and 2 steals, going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
\n\tNils Cooper<\/a> also\u00a0had 6 points to go along with 4 rebounds.
\n\tThe Aggies’ bench provided a significant spark, outscoring the Beach reserves 22-17.
\n\tUC Davis controlled the interior, recording 6 blocks and outscoring Long Beach State 36-32 in the paint.
\n\tThe defense was relentless, forcing 16 turnovers which the Aggies converted into 19 points.
<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Aggies set the tone immediately, racing out to a 6-0 lead in the opening two minutes behind buckets from Jalen Stokes<\/a>, Marcus Wilson<\/a> and Connor Sevilla<\/a>.
\n\tAlthough Long Beach State briefly tied the game at 16-16 midway through the half, UC Davis responded with a decisive 11-0 run. Sparked by a Brayden Fagbemi<\/a> three-pointer and capped by an Omer Suljanovic<\/a> layup, the surge put the Aggies up 27-16.
\n\tUC Davis maintained the pressure, shooting 51.6 percent in the period to take a comfortable 41-27 advantage into the locker room.
\n\tUC Davis kept its foot on the gas to start the second half, opening with a 6-0 burst to push the lead to 20 points at the 18:02 mark.
\n\tThe Aggies’ defense\u00a0held the Beach to 0-of-7 shooting from three-point range in the final 20 minutes.
\n\tWhile Long Beach State managed to trade baskets down the stretch, they never threatened the lead. UC Davis controlled the boards 19-11 in the half and cruised to the 71-54 victory.
<\/p>\n
\nUC Davis hits the road to face Cal State Fullerton on Thursday, Feb. 19. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Fullerton, Calif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE SHORT STORY: Behind a stifling defensive effort and a dominant showing on the glass, UC Davis cruised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-178761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}