Aggie women win sixth straight with dominating win over Cal State Bakersfield
Tova Sabel leads the charge from long range and finishes with 21 points
Proving once again that they plan to compete at the top of the Big West Conference, the UC Davis Aggies were never threatened in routing Cal State Bakersfield, 81-37, in women's basketball Thursday night at the University Credit Union Center.
With the win the Aggies are now 3-0 in Big West play and 9-4 overall, while the struggling Roadrunners slipped to 0-3 and 0-13.
Mazatlan Harris hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute, followed by a put-back from Nya Epps and the rout was on.
Epps had another layup, then finished the quarter with a trey at the buzzer to give the Aggies a 22-4 lead much to the delight of the crowd of 412.
"It's a conference game and everyone gets to wipe the slate clean and start over after the break, so it was good that we were strong at the start and were able to get so many players some significant playing time," said Aggie head coach Jennifer Gross.
"I think depth is a real strength of ours this year and getting playing time off the bench is how you build depth. We have a lot of players who can stretch the floor and knock shots down, and that makes us dangerous. We're pretty tough when we're executing like we were tonight."
Although Bakersfield never threatened to get back in the game, the Roadrunners did find some offense in the second quarter with a trio of 3-pointers, but UCD's offensive onslaught continued and UCD led, 47-17 at the break.
With Tova Sabel hitting 5 of 8 from long range to lead all scorers with 21 points, UCD built its biggest lead of the night at 78-32 midway through the fourth quarter. Sabel added six rebounds and three steals for her night's work.
Victoria Baker had another strong outing with 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the field, while Harris finished with 10 as the Aggies had 11 players break into the scoring column.
The Aggies hit 13 three-pointers and held Bakersfield to just 22-percent shooting from the field.
Added Gross, "To win championships, you have to play great defense and I think we did that tonight."
Next up for the Aggies at home Saturday is Cal State Northridge, just 3-9 overall and 1-2 in conference play, but coming off a tremendous comeback Thursday night to take a 79-76 win in overtime over Cal State Fullerton.
The Matadors trailed, 59-45 entering the final quarter, but rallied to tie the game at 73 and sent it into overtime.
"They're a young team with a new coach and some new faces, but in conference play, we expect everyone to give us their best shot," Gross noted.
In other Big West games Thursday night, UC Santa Barbara stopped Hawaii, 72-62, Long Beach State dropped UC Riverside, 63-48, and UC Irvine crushed Cal Poly, 60-38.
The Aggies and Long Beach share the league lead, both at 3-0, with Irvine at 2-0.
Game time Saturday against Northridge in the UCUC is 2 p.m.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com