Aggie men and women coast to easy wins to open the 2025-26 basketball season
Women rout Jessup, 72-35, while men crush Menlo, 96-69
While there’s always room for improvement in Game 1 of a long collegiate basketball season that stretches into mid-March - and maybe longer - the UC Davis men and women took care of business with a pair of opening night games Monday at the University Credit Union Center.
The Aggie men drew the early game and roared away in the second half to take a 96-69 win over a game, but outmanned Menlo squad, then the Aggie women followed with a dominating 72-35 win over Jessup University of Rocklin.
The men may get a few minutes to put their feet up and bask in the glow of victory, but they’ll be back at it Wednesday evening on their home floor against Summit League power North Dakota State. The Bison opened their season Monday night with a 67-65 loss at Oregon State after missing a shot in the final seconds that would have sent the game into overtime.
Game time at the UCUC is 6 p.m.
Things will get much tougher for the Aggie women Friday morning when they host a rugged Idaho outfit in the annual Field Trip Day game at 11 a.m. A crowd of over 6,000 - mostly schoolkids - is expected, which means the UCUC’s upper bleachers will have to be made available.
While coaches never assume victory is automatic, a loss by either Aggie team would have been a major upset. As it was, both Aggie head coaches, Jim Les and Jen Gross, were able to experiment with a variety of lineups and get a good look at the many newcomers on both squads.
Fully nine players for the Aggie men saw double digit minutes of action, and 11 of the 12 who played broke into the scoring column.
Returnee Niko Rocak, now a UC Davis graduate student, picked up where he left off last year with three blocks to go along with six rebounds, six points and a steal in little more than 20 minutes of action. Holdovers Isaiah Chappell and Connor Sevilla both had four 3-pointers, with Chappell finishing with 16 points and Sevilla with 14.
Another returnee, Nils Cooper, had perhaps his best night in an Aggie uniform, hitting 6 of 8 field goals - including 2 of 2 treys - and all four free throws to lead UCD scorers with 18 points. Cooper added six rebounds, two assists and three steals to his stellar night’s work.
Veteran Carl Daughtery had six steals, several of which led to breakaway baskets for UCD.
Among the large cast of newcomers, Omer Suljanovic from Vienna, Austria, had 10 points and five boards, while Marcus Wilson, a talented transfer from Washington State, had nine points and six rebounds.
The Aggies led just 42-34 at half, but put up 54 points in a blistering second half.
“I was really pleased with the depth we showed tonight,” Les said.
“We got some really good production off the bench and that gives me a lot of confidence when those guys are in there. When we share the ball and spread the floor, we have a lot of guys who can make shots. We did get an early lead, then didn’t handle prosperity very well, but things were much more focused in the second half.”
As for Wednesday night’s anticipated battle with North Dakota State, Les noted the Bison typically present a lot of problems with the quality of their offensive attack.
“Our defense is going to be tested,” Les added.
The Aggie women led for all but the opening minute in routing Jessup, with Ryann Bennett leading the way with 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the floor. Bennett had back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half as UCD expanded on a 39-20 halftime lead to win going away.
Megan Norris, last season’s leading rebounder for the Aggies, was a force on the boards with 16 rebounds to go with 15 points and an impressive six blocks.
“We got some good minutes out of a lot of players,” Gross said.
“We did some great things tonight and our defense was energetic. I was really pleased with our consistency and execution. We had good production across the board.”
As for Idaho on Friday morning, Gross gave a knowing smile and said “They’re very good. It will be a big challenge for us.”
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com