Pepperdine pummels Aggie men in non-conference basketball affair
UC Davis trails from start to finish in 85-46 loss
MALIBU ... This is the kind of result where you find the game film, burn it and bury it, and never mention what happened again.
UC Davis entered Saturday's non-conference men's basketball game against Pepperdine with a four-game win streak and all the confidence that regular winning can bring.
For reasons unknown, the Aggies didn't show up for the noon start at the Firestone Fieldhouse on the Pepperdine campus and the result was an overwhelming 85-46 loss to the Waves.
The lone bright spot was that only 503 people showed up to witness this matinee massacre.
"That was a huge lump of coal in our Christmas stocking," said Aggie head coach Jim Les, who was not filled with holiday cheer.
"We didn't come out with any energy or intensity or physicality like we usually do. I was disappointed in our leadership, because they didn't lead us today. It's a humble pie, but there will be a second or third dose of this if we don't correct some things right away."
And what did Les tell the team as they prepared to take a few days off to join their families before returning home for a Dec. 28 game (4 p.m.) with Cal Maritime?
"I wished them a Merry Christmas and safe travels home. We'll talk about this when they get back after Christmas," said the Aggie coach.
UCD is now 7-5, while Pepperdine is 6-7.
The Aggies started poorly and things only got worse from there.
Pepperdine never trailed, opening a 13-3 lead with the game barely five minutes old, stretching that to 25-10 and taking a 43-19 lead into the intermission.
A 3-pointer by Kyle Braun gave the Waves a 78-36 lead, their biggest of the afternoon, with 4:25 remaining.
The Waves scored 32 points off 18 Aggie turnovers and shot 51.6 percent from the field.
UCD, meanwhile, struggled through its worst shooting effort of the season, converting just 28 percent from the field and making just one of 15 3-point attempts.
Niko Rocak hit the first long-range attempt early, but the Aggies missed 14 in a row after that.
Carl Daughtery was the only Aggie in double figures with 11 points, while Dovydas Butka led five Waves into double figures with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com
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What an embarrassment. I had been using Bob's math and figured the Ags were two points better than the SEC Georgia Dawgs after Davis prevailed by a bucket in head-to-head games against Grand Canyon University.