Rocak's dominant performance leads Aggie men's basketball to win over Idaho
UCD leads from to start to finish for a 74-66 win, its fourth straight
It wasn't necessarily a thing of beauty at times, but UC Davis responded when it needed to and the result was a 74-66 non-conference men's basketball win over the Idaho Vandals Wednesday night at the University Credit Union Center.
"We're still undefeated in December and that was one of our goals," said Aggie big man Niko Rocak who was a huge presence all night on both ends of the floor.
Rocak finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and four steals as the Aggies stretched their win streak to four games - all in December - and their overall mark to 7-4.
Idaho is now 4-8.
"A win is a win and now we just have to try to keep it rolling," added Rocak, a native of Croatia who grew up in Switzerland.
Aggie head coach Jim Les was effusive in his praise of the 6-9 Rocak.
"Niko is as good of a post player as I've ever coached," said Les.
"There aren't many guys in college basketball who embrace the idea of affecting the game without the ball. Everyone wants to score. But Niko does so many things to contribute on defense and offense. He affects the game in so many ways."
The Aggies never trailed in this one, using a stifling defense to keep the Vandals from having great looks at the basket in a first half that ended with UCD up 32-25.
"I love how we started on defense," Les added.
"Our energy and execution was excellent. We had an opportunity to put the game away if we could have hit our free throws."
Indeed, the Aggies suffered through a miserable night at the line, hitting just 27 of 43 attempts for 62.8 percent, causing Les to tongue in cheek praise Idaho for having "a great free throw defense."
UCD went on a 10-0 run early in the second half to build a seemingly insurmountable 46-30 lead, but the Vandals would not go away.
Idaho pulled within 68-64 with 34 seconds remaining before Leo DeBruhl sank a pair of free throws and TY Johnson scored on a breakaway slam to put the game away.
Johnson finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and four steals, while DeBruhl had 11 points and six assists.
The Aggies will continue non-conference action Saturday at noon at Pepperdine of the West Coast Conference, then come home Dec. 28 for a 4 p.m. game against Cal Maritime.
UCD, already 2-0 in the Big West, resumes conference play Jan. 2 at Cal State Bakersfield and Jan. 4 at Cal State Northridge.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
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