Cal Poly(4-19, 0-11) lost its 11th straight game after facing off against UC Davis(14-8, 9-2) on Saturday, Feb. 3 at Mott Athletics Center.
The Aggies defeated the Mustangs 59-52 in a matchup that was much closer than when these teams previously faced off on Dec. 29, when the Aggies won 71-46 at home. UC Davis is currently the second-best team in the Big West.
Coming out of halftime, the Mustangs were trailing 25-23 to the Aggies. After a back-and-forth first half, UC Irvine took over for the majority of the game and had an 18-point lead with 9:02 left. However, the Mustangs battled back late, sparking a 7-0 run with about seven minutes left and forced a few turnovers to give their squad a chance.
With two minutes to play, a Kobe Sanders bucket cut the UC Davis lead to four, forcing a timeout for the Aggies. Immediately after, UC Davis set up a backdoor play for their star player, Elijah Pepper, which ended up sealing the win for the Aggies.
With Tuukka Jaakkola sidelined after an injury Thursday night, 6 ’10 junior forward from London, England, Joel Armotrading, stepped up for the Mustangs. Armotrading recorded his first double-double of his career at Cal Poly, scoring 10 points and recording a career-high 13 rebounds.
“I felt like I could have played better personally,” Armotrading said.“I could have made some easy layups, but I just have to keep playing aggressively and with confidence moving into the next games.”
Sanders and Justin Page were also key contributors to the Mustangs. Sanders was a bit quiet for his standards during the first half, with only three points, but ended up finishing with 14 points and 4 assists. Cal Poly freshman Justin Page had a career-high 8 points during his 21 minutes of play.
As for UC Davis, Elijah Pepper caused some problems for the Mustangs, finishing with 16 points and 8 rebounds. After 22 games for the Aggies, Pepper leads the Big West Conference in scoring, averaging 22 points per game.
Ty Johnson was also a key factor for UC Davis, scoring 13 points and shooting 5 for 5 from the free-throw line.
At the free throw line and second chance opportunities, the Aggies set themselves apart. UC Davis shot 13-16 from the free throw line versus Cal Poly, shooting 14-22 from the strike. Also, UC Davis had 13 points off of second chance opportunities compared to Cal Poly’s 2 second chance points.
Leading rebounder Joel Armotrading commented after the game on his team’s performance.
“We played hard, ”Armotrading said.“There are definitely some little mistakes that we could have fixed. Limiting turnovers would have helped us.”
Even with the outcome, the Mustangs never went away against the Aggies on Saturday. This was also apparent in the game last weekend when Cal Poly fought from behind against Coach Smith’s old team, Cal State Fullerton.
“My team is never going to quit fighting, Coach John Smith said. “That’s one thing that everyone can understand… that we will continue to fight until the end.
Cal Poly will look to keep chipping away and find their first conference win when they head on the road to face off against Cal State Northridge on Thursday, February 8th, at 7 p.m.