Sunday, November 15, 1998
By BRANDON FRINK
Enterprise staff writer
STANFORD -- It came with an unexpected thunder from a player on the team that had no business doing such things.
Jason Cox had the ball at the top of the key, made one move to his left, bolted back to the right and went right over Jason Collins, three inches and 50 pounds his senior, for a monster dunk.
It was the moment where you actually thought the UC Davis men's basketball team could compete with Stanford. The team only trailed by three and the Maples Pavillion rowdies were quiet.
But all fairy tales must come to an end, and the Aggies saw theirs crushed by the No. 3-ranked Cardinal on Saturday 76-49.
``I don't know what to say. I'm actually very proud of how we competed,'' said UCD coach Brian Fogel, who was clearly a tad excited. ``We were giving up inches, giving up pounds, giving up athleticism.... But I'm just proud of the way they battled.''
It wasn't hard to see the difference between Division I and Division II basketball as early as the warmups.
The Aggies looked plain, tiny warming next to the likes of 7-foot-2, 250-pound Stanford center Tim Young and 6-9, 235 power-forward Mark Madsen.
But once the game started, the differences became a little blurred, at least for a little while.
UCD actually hung around. Following Cox's mammoth jam that made it 11-8 Stanford with 12:20 left in the first half, the Aggies battled back and forth with the Cardinal.
``We had a lot of fun playing against those big guys. We played with them,'' UCD point guard Dante Ross said. ``Realistically, we don't want to face anyone else like that, but we proved we wouldn't break down.''
UCD's deficit fluctuated much of the half between six and 10, as the Aggies brawled to keep Stanford off the offensive boards. Although three turnovers late in the half helped Stanford to jump out to a 12-point lead, Cox ended the half on a positive note when he hit a short jumper at the buzzer to make it 38-28. Not a bad score, considering the mauling everyone was expecting.
``Everyone was all smiles at halftime. I thought everything was falling into place,'' said Cox, who finished with 11 points. ``Then they started hitting their shots.''
That the Cardinal did. Stanford opened the half with an 11-2 run, and UCD never recovered.
``They're so big, so strong, so physical, you have to work so hard on defense,'' Fogel said. ``Eventually, they just wore us down.''
Nevertheless, UCD has rarely felt so good about a 27-point loss. In fact, Stanford killed the Aggies on the boards 55-28, but Fogel wasn't disappointed at all with the play of freshmen big men (relatively speaking) Brent Wise, Jordan Moss and senior John Surina. They banged and battled the best they could against one of the largest and strongest teams in all of Division I basketball.
Ross also gave UCD a solid game, leading the team with 16 points and three assists.
``You would have never guessed it would be a 25-point game,'' said Ross, who held Stanford's Arthur Lee to seven points and four assists. ``Hopefully, we can turn this game into a 30-point victory against another team.''
Stanford, meanwhile, was also a bit impressed with the Aggies. Cardinal head coach Mike Montgomery, in fact, said the game was just what his team needed.
``I'm glad we got a game like this to start the season,'' Montgomery said. ``We have a lot of respect for Davis. I think they're really well coached, and it was good for us to go against a very organized team like that.''
Still, UCD knows it has a long way to go if it plans on doing anything to close to what the team accomplished last season.
``Our kids are real excited right now,'' Fogel said. ``But don't get me wrong, we're not content. We're going to go back to Davis and work really hard to get ready for the rest of the season.''
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