Late 3-point dagger stops Aggies at UC Riverside in Big West men's basketball showdown

UC Davis falls into fourth place at the halfway point of the Big West season

RIVERSIDE ... This one will hurt for a while.

UC Davis saw a three-point lead slip away in the final seconds and dropped a tense 60-58 Big West men's basketball decision to UC Riverside Thursday night before an enthusiastic crowd of 1,754 at the SRC Arena.

A jumper by TY Johnson gave the Aggies a 58-55 advantage with 30 seconds remaining, but the Highlanders cut the deficit to 58-57 on a pair of free throws from Kaleb Smith at 0:16.

The Aggies inbounded to Johnson, but his backcourt pass sailed over teammate Connor Sevilla's head and went out of bounds to UCR with 13 seconds left, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

UCR worked the ball around, then found Pickens all alone in the left corner and he buried a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left.

After a time out to set up a final play, Johnson had a good look at a 3-pointer for the win, but it bounced high off the rim at the buzzer.

"I can't fault our energy and our desire, but they just made one more play than we did," said Aggie head coach Jim Les afterward.