WOMEN’S BASKETBALL UPDATE Down by 13 at halftime, the Aggies hustled back to cut the deficit to as few as 3 points in the third quarter, and trailed by as few as 4 in the fourth, but ended up losing to Washington State, 71-62, in the Cougars’ Beasley Coliseum, Thursday night (March 23) in Round 3 of the WNIT. The Aggies defeated Utah and Colorado State in the first two rounds for the team's first wins in the postseason in five appearances in 10 years as a Division I program. The team earned its way into the WNIT by capturing the Big West Conference regular season title and finished the year with a record of 25-8. Way to go, Aggies! Read game story from the athletics department.

Prior to this year, the Aggie women’s basketball team had been in four postseason tournaments and never won a game. Well, this year the Ags have two wins and will play again this Thursday night (March 23) in the WNIT’s Round of 16.

The Aggie men’s basketball team had a win, too, in their program’s first ever appearance in the NCAA’s Division I tournament, the “Big Dance,” before falling to Kansas last Friday (March 17) and being knocked out of March Madness. Still, the Ags made quite an impression in their limited time on the national stage and had the support of Aggie fans at watch parties on campus and around the country, and overseas, too. That support continues despite Friday’s loss, as evidenced by the hundreds of fans who turned out Saturday afternoon for a welcome home celebration in front of the Activities and Recreation Center.

Elsewhere in athletics last week, a UC Davis swimmer competed in the NCAAs for the first time and three Aggie gymnasts secured spots in the NCAAs championships’ Seattle Regional on Saturday, April 1 (two other gymnasts are alternates). Can we hear a “Go Ags!”?

In their fifth postseason appearance in 10 years as a Division I program, the Aggies broke through with their first win last Friday, defeating Utah, 72-62, on the Utes’ home court in Salt Lake City. Two days later, the Ags were in Fort Collins, Colorado, playing the Colorado State Rams on their home court, in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

“Trailing 53-52 with 4:12 remaining … Marly Anderson sank two free throws to give UC Davis the lead for good as the Aggies’ defense stepped up in crunch time to defeat Colorado State, 58-57,” the athletics department wrote in its game coverage.

The Aggies returned home late Sunday for finals week, and they left Wednesday for Pullman, Washington, for their Round 3 game against Washington State.

Celebration at the ARC last Saturday upon the basketball team’s return NCAA Midwest Regional. (Wayne Tilcock/The Davis Enterprise)

Not very many No. 16 seeds can say they won a game in the NCAA tournament. UC Davis can — having defeated North Carolina Central, 67-63, in a play-in game March 15 in the Midwest Regional. That put the Aggies into the regular 64-team bracket, where they went up against No. 1 seed Kansas and lost 100-62 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I don’t want tonight and the outcome and the score to take away from what this group did,” head coach Jim Les said. “They put UC Davis basketball and UC Davis on the map, nationally, internationally. And they were just a special group.”

Five of them are graduating: J.T. Adenrele, Georgi Funtaro, Darius Graham, Brynton Lemar and Lawrence White. Each of them and the rest of the guys, Bruce Gallaudet wrote in Sunday’s Davis Enterprise, “is an old-fashioned role model — a representative of our community, the campus and what is right with the world.”

Aggies have fans in Lowe places. See Dateline Download.

Alexis Brown and Katy Nogaki won individual titles as the UC Davis team came in second — just two-tenths of a point behind host San Jose State — in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships last Sunday. Brown won the individual all-around title and tied for the floor exercise title, while Nogaki won the individual balance beam title. After the competition, the MPSF announced Brown’s selection as Gymnast of the Year and John Lavallee’s selection as Coach of the Year (for the sixth time).

Next up: the NCAA championships. UC Davis did not qualify as a team, but several individuals still had a shot and had to wait to find out if they were going. The announcement came Monday (March 20), when the NCAA selection show revealed the following Aggie picks for the Seattle Regional:

Alexis Brown — all-around

all-around Yonni Michovska — uneven bars

uneven bars Yasmine Yektaparast — balance beam and alternate in floor exercise

balance beam and alternate in floor exercise Sarah Liddle — alternate in uneven bars

alternate in uneven bars Katy Nogaki — alternate in vault

The regional will take place at the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, University of Washington. Check back for information on television and-or live stream, and radio.

Solie Laughlin closed out her first appearance in the NCAA swimming championships (last Thursday through Saturday) with two top-40 finishes in her three events (only the first 16 advanced in each race) at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis. The sophomore came in 30th in the 400 IM with a time of 4:11.85, about a second off her personal best; 39th in the 200 back with a time of 1:54.60, just .02 off her school-record time set earlier this season; and 52nd in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.25, just over five-tenths of a second off her career best 1.59.74.

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