Long Beach sweeps Aggie men and women in Big West Basketball
UCD women fall, 73-60, while men drop 84-73 decision
UC Davis basketball fans will be happy not to see Long Beach State for a while after The Beach took wins from both the Aggie men and women Saturday afternoon.
The Aggie women fell behind early and never recovered as their eight-game win streak was snapped in a 73-60 loss to Long Beach in the battle of Big West unbeatens in the Walter Pyramid on the Long Beach State campus.
The Aggie men, meanwhile, failed to show their usual defensive intensity and dropped an 84-73 Big West decision to Long Beach State before a disappointed crowd of 2,263 at the University Credit Union Center.
The UCD women are now 4-1 in the Big West and 11-5 overall, while Long Beach leads the league at 5-0 and is 9-5 overall.
The UCD men fell to 3-3 in the Big West and 9-8 overall, with Long Beach moved to 3-2 and 7-10.
The women were cold from the start, falling behind 20-8 before rallying to trail just 22-19 at the end of the first quarter.
But then disaster struck.
UCD managed to shoot just 1 of 14 from the floor and scored just three points in the second quarter as Long Beach took a 35-22 lead at the half.
UCD did not make a field goal in the final 6:41 of the second quarter.
Trailing 54-36 entering the fourth period, the Aggie women went on a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 62-52 on a 3-pointer from Ryan Bennett, but could come no closer down the stretch.
UCD shot just 25.3 percent from the floor for the game, with Mazatlan Harris scoring 13 points and Bennett 11.
The Aggie women will come home Thursday against Cal Poly and Saturday against UC Santa Barbara.
The Aggie men struggled to put up a consistent defensive effort against Long Beach, especially in the second half.
UCD jumped to an early 19-14 advantage on a 3-pointer from Leo DeBruhl, but Long Beach rallied behind a strong performance from Devin Askew to take a 32-31 lead at the half.
With Askew hitting 9 of 13 from the floor, including 4 of 6 from long range, The Beach enjoyed their biggest lead of the night at 79-66, a margin that was too much for the Aggies to overcome.
"We gave up 52 points in the second half and left them with too many open looks," said Aggie head coach Jim Les.
"We didn't come out with the energy on defense that we needed. We value our defense, but the mindset wasn't there. That has to change and change in a hurry."
Free throw shooting kept the Aggies in the game as UCD was 27 for 31 from the line, including a phenomenal 18 of 20 from TY Johnson, who finished with 31 points.
Askew, who started his collegiate career at Kentucky, then had stops at Texas and Cal before landing in Long Beach, led all scorers with 32 points.
"Give them credit," Les added.
"They made some shots when they needed them, but we'll get better."
The Aggie men will hit the road for Big West games at Cal Poly Thursday and UC Santa Barbara Saturday.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
Devin Askew must be a well-rounded, high-achieving student having gone off to college FOUR TIMES.