So much for regression to the mean! Ags now shooting 68.6%.

Pepper has a really smooth looking hook shot, the most underused shot in all of basketball.

Oh yeah! I was looking at the 3 point percentage for which 60% is pretty amazing. Of course, it's only 3/5. The trouble with either stat is that given regression to the mean, the Aga are unlikely to maintain that heat through the second half. The defense needs to stay tough.

Great finish for the first half. Anigwe's injury notwithstanding. Ags shooting 60% from the floor! Seems like the team has been playing a lot more zone in recent games and it sure worked in this game. Borra has had as good as any minutes I've seen this season. The defense really clamped down on Hawai`i after the Warriors came out very hot from the floor.

I think you mean Borra? Francesco Borra.

The Honolulu newspaper had a nice write-up about Elijah Pepper today, noting that he leads the conference in scoring now. They also explained that Ty Johnson's name is pronounced Tee-Why, which solves a mystery of mine all season. Yesterday, the printed an interview with Hawai`i's coach in which he expressed concern that hi team often goes into lackadaisical stretch during games, something they can't afford to do at Davis and expect to win.

When I was going to UCD, there was no women's intercollegiate team, so I never got attached to it. In fact the first year I was there, women weren't even allowed to play full court 5 on five IM basketball or any kind of football. That changed remarkably fast.

This one hurts because of the many "what ifs." What if Pepper hadn't gotten hurt. What if Anigwe had played. What if Beasley had played. What if the refs called as foul on Johnson at the very end. UC Davis falls to 6th for now with that loss. Credit to the Beach, though, who had their own "what ifs," but out-rebounded us 40-31 and had more assists, 15-13.

Ags playing a lot of zone. I wonder if that has anything to do with Anigwe's absence?

I don't like these officials; they've missed a lot of calls both ways and called a lot of phantom fouls. In one instance, a Beach player passed the ball off an Ag's foot and the ref called it a kicked ball. Coach Les was arguing that it isn't a kicked ball if it is the result of an errant pass and I think he was right.

The Beach is really exploiting Christian's absence at both ends of the court. They're shooting 57.9% on a lot of dunks. Even though a lot of those are on fast breaks, I suspect that if Anigwe were out there, their percentage would be a bit lower.

So the game at Bakersfield was really a Pyrrhic victory.

Just learned from the start of the broadcast that Joel Murray is injured and out, to be replaced by Tone Hunter. I think that's a key.

I saw the second half of the UCSB-Hawaii game. Hawaii must have played poor first half, because they were down by as much as 13, but came out strong in the second half. The end was very frustrating because the Rainbow Warriors had their chances in the last two minutes after going up by 1, but they couldn't find the basket even after the Gauchos missed two free throws. At least the Ags are now tied with Hawaii for the 4 seed.

A bit disappointing to see the guys let down when they got a 27 point lead. Let the Roadrunners cut the lead in half. I think this is where coach Les does a good job of shaking them up. In a way, this was unfair as CSUB was missing two starters as well as two key backups, about 27 ppg. lost. 6 of their 10 free throw misses were by Anigwe.

Its turned into a pretty sloppy game with the officials becoming a bit over active, which is insonsistent with the first half. Adebayo in double figures!

At least his ankle seems okay.

Pepper really li tit up near the end hitting 3 long treys near the end of the half, converting a 9 point lead to an 18 point lead. It didn't look so sanguine at the start as the Ags looked like they just woke up from a nap to start the game, trailing 7-2. That's right, UCD outscored the Roadrunners 38- 15 the rest of the half.

It's looking like a real dogfight at the top. If Hawai`i beats UCSB in Honolulu tonight and Fullerton holds serve at home against UCI, there will be four 2 loss teams. The Aggies would be only one game back with a win down in Barkersfield (Inside joke. I had a dormmate named Barker form there whom we called Baker from Barkersfield).

I like BlueGold's starting five, but I've seen all of them and I have to disqualify myself from anyone who played prior to 2012, when Hawai`i joined the league and I had a chance to watch even one UCD game, let alone the plethora I get to see now.