Nightmarish second half dooms Aggie men in Big West basketball loss to Cal State Northridge
Matadors outscore UCD, 50-30, in second half and cruise to 94-78 win
NORTHRIDGE - A sparkling first half turned into second half misery as the UC Davis men dropped a disappointing 94-78 Big West basketball decision to Cal State Northridge Thursday night before a gathering of 625 at the Premier America Credit Union Arena.
The loss drops the Aggies to 5-5 in the Big West at the halfway point of the conference season, and 12-9 overall.
The Matadors are now 5-5 and 12-10.
The Aggies led throughout the opening 10 minutes, with their biggest lead coming at 23-15.
A 9-0 CSUN run gave the Matadors a 24-23 advantage, but the Aggies regained their footing to take a 48-41 lead into the final minute of the first half.
However, in an ominous sign of things to come, CSUN’s James Evans hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to trim the margin to 48-44 at the break.
Northridge started the second half with a 13-2 burst and the Aggies never recovered as the Matadors dominated the final 20 minutes, 50-30.
“You score 78 points on the road, that ought to be enough to win,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les.
“I didn’t think our resistance or our competitiveness was very good in the second half. The hungrier, more aggressive team won that game. We should have had a 10 or 15 point lead in the first half, but we let them back into the game.”
In a tale of two halves, the Aggies shot 55.2 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including 9 of 16 from long range. In the second half, UCD shot just 29.4 percent from the field and converted just 1 of 10 from 3-point land.
Connor Sevilla led the Aggies with 15 points, while Marcus Wilson had 13, Nils Cooper 12 and Isaiah Chappell 10.
UCD returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. at Cal State Bakersfield, a team they lost to, 81-79, in early January.