Epps leads the way as Aggie women crush Northridge in Big West basketball at the UCUC
UCD leads by as many as 30 points in cruising to a 68-51 win
Leading for all but the first couple of minutes, the UC Davis women overwhelmed Cal State Northridge, 68-51, in a Big West basketball contest Thursday night before a crowd of 537 at the University Credit Union Center.
The win keeps the Aggies close to the league leaders in the race to claim the regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Big West tournament in Henderson, Nevada come March.
UCD is now 8-2 in league play and 15-6 overall, while the Matadors fell to 2-8 and 6-13.
UCD’s Nya Epps was on fire early and finished with 27 points to lead all scorers.
“I’m really happy with how we shared the ball and created some great shots,” said Aggie head coach Jen Gross.
“We had such good ball movement and Nya really took advantage of that.”
The Aggies trailed 7-2 early, but then went on a 16-0 run to remove all doubt about the ultimate outcome of this one.
The UCD defense was stellar through three quarters, holding the Matadors to just 27 points and building a lead that stretched to as many as 30 points.
CSUN, however, closed with a 12-0 streak to make the final score much more respectable.
“That was a little disappointing, because we wanted to play the second half just as strong as the first,” Gross added. “We really need to keep working on finishing the game well.”
Megan Norris had yet another double-double with 10 points and 15 rebounds while dishing out four assists.
Ryann Bennett added 10 points along with four steals and three assists.
The Aggies were 22 of 34 from inside the arc, but a miserable 4 of 30 from long distance.
UCD has invited back a number of prominent basketball alums for Saturday’s 2 p.m. home game against Cal State Bakersfield.
The Roadrunners moved to 2-8 Thursday night with a 62-58 win over Cal Poly.
“Bakersfield is tough,” Gross noted. “They really gave us a battle at their place.”
UCD defeated Bakersfield, 69-59, earlier this month.
In other Big West action Thursday night, UC San Diego stopped UC Santa Barbara, 52-49, and Long Beach State slipped past UC Riverside, 75-72.