Aggies Will Open WNIT at Home

We’re Hosting the Idaho Vandals on Thursday

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Aggie player on defense
Morgan Bertsch plays tough for the Aggies in the Big West tournament championship game today (March 10) at the Honda Center in Anaheim. (Cam Hughes./UC Davis)

Updated 9:30 p.m. March 12: The WNIT bracket announced tonight shows UC Davis (25-6) hosting Idaho (19-13) this Thursday (March 15), time to be announced.

Updated 6:30 p.m. March 11: The NIT bracket announced today shows No. 2-seeded Utah (19-11) hosting No. 7-seeded UC Davis (22-10), Wednesday (March 14), in the first round. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Watch it on ESPN3. Read more in this UC Davis Athletics news release.

The Aggie women’s team is going to the WNIT; the 64-team bracket is scheduled to be announced Monday (March 12).

Updated 5:55 p.m. March 10: The Aggie women fell to California State University Northridge in the Big West tournament championship today, 63-55, but the Aggies will continue play — going to the Women's National Invitation Tournament.

The women (25-6 after today’s game) had been hoping for their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2011.

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The UC Davis women’s basketball team will play Saturday (March 10) for the Big West Tournament championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

BIG WEST TOURNAMENTS

Aggie Women

Aggie Men

The Aggie men, meanwhile, will advance to the National Invitation Tournament, starting March 13-14. They lost their Big West semifinal tonight (March 9) — taking Cal State Fullerton down to the wire before falling 55-52 — missing out on the championship game and a shot at their own berth in the NCAAs.

The women played their semifinal game earlier today, taking on the Titans of UC Riverside. Trailing by five points with 2:34 remaining, top-seeded UC Davis played tough defense and made key baskets down the stretch — scoring nine of the final 10 points of the game for a 49-46 victory.

The Aggie men and women already won their regular-season championships — guaranteeing the men their berth in the NIT and the women a berth in the WNIT in the event they don’t make it to the NCAAs.

The Aggie men (22-10 on the year) were hoping to be in the NCAA’s Big Dance for the second year in a row — they made history last year with the team’s first NCAA berth in school history. The Aggies made the most of that appearance — defeating North Carolina Central, 67-63, in a play-in game before falling to powerhouse Kansas.

The UC Davis women have been in the NCAAs once before, in 2011, losing to Stanford in the first round, and the WNIT four times, most recently last year when the Aggies posted their first postseason wins (beyond the Big West Tournament) in 10 years as a Division I program, defeating Utah State and Colorado before falling in the Round of 16.

Saturday showdown

The Aggie women will go up against Cal State University Northridge for the Big West championship. The Matadors finished fifth in the regular season, with a record of 8-8, compared with the Aggies’ 14-2. The Aggies are 25-5 on the year, the Matadors 18-15.

The Aggies had a double bye into Friday’s semifinal, so they needed only one win to make it into the championship game. The Matadors, on the other hand, played three games, defeating Hawaii, 62-57; UC Santa Barbara, 72-63; and Cal Poly, 73-50.

Tipoff for Saturday’s Aggies-Matador game will be at 4 p.m.

#GoAgs!

Fans are encouraged to tag @UCDavisWBB on social media posts, and, of course, add #GoAgs, the official hashtag of UC Davis Athletics. 

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Dateline Staff, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu

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