For example, the change: The UC Davis men's and women's basketball teams, after years of dominating the Northern California Athletic Conference, debuted in their new conference, the California Collegiate Athletic Conference, Friday at the Rec Hall.

Now, the static part: Sonoma State, also part of the NCAC last year and making the move to the CCAA, played the Aggies on Friday. Same opponent, same results: two Aggies victories. The women won the opener in overtime 70-69, and the men won 67-52.

The Aggies men (4-1, 1-0), the defending Division II national champions, were picked by the CCAA coaches to finish second to Cal State Bakersfield.

Despite the Cossacks (3-1, 0-1) being picked to finish 10th and bringing a 1-5 record against the Aggies the last two years into Friday's game, UC Davis needed a 22-7 run early in the second half to pull away. That stretched a 25-20 Aggies halftime lead to 47-27.

"Clearly the difference at the beginning of the second half and all of the first half was our transition game," said Aggies coach Brian Fogel. "They were missing their long shot; we were getting the rebounds and flying. And when you have somebody like a Dante Ross leading the break, good things happen."

The Aggies had four players in double figures led by Scott Darmstadt and Ross, a preseason All-America pick, with 12 points each.

The Aggies women (6-1, 1-0) were picked to win the conference, the Cossacks (5-1, 0-1) third.

"From the beginning I felt Sonoma was the team to deal with," Aggies coach Sandy Simpson said. "There are other very good teams in the conference, but that was a very good basketball game tonight, and we are lucky to get the win."

Lucky indeed. The Aggies scored the last nine points of the first half for a 32-21 lead. But UCD was looking at a 52-45 deficit with 7:40 left.

Then the Aggies' Karyn Castro, who has not played for two weeks, took over, scoring seven unanswered points to tie the score 52-52 with 6:30 remaining. Castro, who had a game-high 26 points, fractured a bone in her back against Seattle Pacific on Nov. 21 and was not expected to play.

"I left it up to her," Simpson said. "She also has four bulging discs. It's a tribute to her that she stayed with it."

The Aggies took a 62-56 lead with 39 seconds remaining only to see Sonoma tie it with five seconds left after Emily Ela's second three-pointer.

Castro, as well as she played in the second half, came close to being the goat as she missed two free throws with 15 seconds left.