Sunday, Feb. 1, 1998
By SCOTT M. JOHNSON
Enterprise staff writer
Call this one a unanimous decision.
Three days after battling Chico State to a memorable one-point road win, the UC Davis men's basketball team proved beyond a shadow of a doubt who the better team was with a convincing 86-67 win at Hamilton Court on Saturday.
Playing before a record crowd of 7,860 during the 11th annual Break the Record Night, the Aggies took advantage of the home-court advantage and a cold-shooting Wildcats team to remain unbeaten in the Northern California Athletic Conference.
UCD (18-2, 8-0 NCAC) used a zone defense for a good part of the first half, while Chico State struggled from 3-point range for the second consecutive game. The Aggies opened up a 38-31 halftime lead as the Wildcats suffered through 14-of-35 shooting, including 2-of-12 from behind the 3-point line.
Chico's Andre Speech and Deon Robinson, who combined for 39 points in Wednesday's controversial 78-77 loss to the Aggies, hit just 2 of 13 shots in the first half Saturday.
``It seemed like they collapsed down on me a lot early, and they were giving us the 3s,'' said Speech, who scored 19 points despite 6-of-19 shooting. ``When we weren't knocking them down, it seemed like they stayed with that and that allowed them to outrebound us, it seemed like. We just didn't shoot well from the outside.''
Said UCD coach Bob Williams, ``Their legs looked tired. They weren't shooting the ball well for the second consecutive game for us, and I wanted to see if they could hit some 3s and get back into it.''
A 15-6 spurt to start the second half put UCD ahead 55-39 with 13:45 remaining in the contest. After that, the game may as well have been any one of the Aggies' first five NCAC victories, which were all decided by at least 15 points.
``I knew if we came in and played like we were supposed to play, we'd be alright,'' said UCD point guard Dante Ross, who led the Aggies with 17 points.
Four other Aggies scored in double figures.
``I think we kind of wore them down,'' said J.C. Timmons, who scored 12 for UCD. ``They were tired.''
It was apparent from the first few minutes that Saturday's game would not be quite the test the Aggies faced earlier in the week.
Chico (13-7, 4-4) missed six of its first seven shots in falling behind 9-4. But the Wildcats' defense kept the team in the game by forcing UCD into turnovers in the first half. They battled to a 22-22 tie with seven minutes remaining in the half before a 12-point UCD spurt put the Aggies ahead to stay.
``We got outplayed,'' Chico coach Puck Smith said. ``I don't think we got outplayed on Wednesday, but tonight we got outplayed pretty much in every aspect of the game. I think you can look at a stat sheet and it indicates pretty accurately the difference in the level of play in the two teams. Davis really played very aggressively and had a lot of intensity. They played a lot harder than we did.''
Added Speech, ``They really got after it they played harder than us tonight. They got all the loose balls, they made all the great plays. We were ready to play maybe 20 minutes of the game.''
The convincing victory means that the Aggies now have a three-game lead in the NCAC standings with six games to play.
``I think we feel pretty good, but we can't take that for granted,'' Ross said. ``On any given night, a team can come in and hand it to us. We have to take it game by game and keep the intensity up. We can't take any team for granted I don't care if we beat them by 40 or by five.''
Justis Durkee, who had 14 points and five rebounds, is not worried about his team letting up even though they have now defeated every team in the conference in convincing fashion this season.
``Our attitude for this year has been to keep working hard, no matter what,'' Durkee said. ``We started this season last spring, working hard running on the grass. Even though we have a three- or four-game lead, it would be ridiculous for us to let up now.''
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