33-25 Fullerton at the half. I wouldn't want to be in the locker room with Coach Les after that miserable first half by the Aggies. The Ags are simply getting outplayed while shooting 33% to go along with 11 TO's. JT and Chima have combined for 1 point.

The Ags are asleep at the wheel to start the game. 4 minutes in and they trail 9-0 and have 4 TO's. Ugh!

(Y)

From my perspective Chima's struggles are a little of both. Teams are definitely sagging on him and playing him very physical and the Ags are also seeing more zone defenses designed to stop our interior game. But, Chima has also been missing shots that he was routinely making earlier in the season and is probably pressing a bit right now.

He has been demonstrably frustrated with himself lately. He's and emotional player who thrives on being an impactful contributor to the team and has gotten a lot of attention in the press recently. All players go through tough stretches and I think Chima has the athletic ability to adjust to the way teams are now defending him and will get untracked soon. At least I hope so since well absolutely need his offensive contribution.

The blocking fouls against the Ags were tough to watch. I think the NCAA rules committee needs to take a long, hard look and reevaluating the call when the offensive player initiates contact into the defender and the defender gets called for a block. Defenders are almost always at a disadvantage since they are moving backwards and are reacting to the movement of the offensive player just to try a stay in front of him. No one can move backwards as quickly as a player moving forward. These calls are handcuffing defenders and hurt the game by making harder to defend in favor of point production.

It seems to me that, half the time, the refs don't really know what to call but they feel like they have to call something. A no call would be better than making a guess. It's verges on being ridiculous at times and hurts the game.

Coach Les had a couple of interesting quotes in the Enterprise story about the game:

In regards to us not matching the 49ers physicality he said, “We knew they were going to be physical,” Les said. “I think J.T. really responded to the physicality and was active and aggressive. I didn’t think we had too many other guys running to the fight, and we’ve got to run to that fight a little bit better.”

Then when commenting on the terribly poor FT shooting he said: “Looking at our free-throw shooting, their free-throw defense was awfully good,” Les said. “At the end of regulation, we were 9 for 21. You can’t come on the road and put yourself in that kind of position. You’ve got to step up and make some free throws. If we do, we probably end this thing in regulation.”

The comment about the Long Beach FT defense being "awfully good" is pretty funny!

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggies-go-cold-in-ot-fall-short-in-long-beach/

This was a hard fought, tough loss for the Ags on the road. We had the lead 55-53 but Evan Payne hit a tough jumper with 2.6 seconds left to tie it up. Then Darius Graham just missed sinking a half court shot by inches and the game went into OT. In OT LB hit a couple of 3's and got the benefit of two horrible foul calls and the Ags found themselves down 8 real quick and never got closer than 5 after that.

The big difference in the game was LB's dominance in the paint and on the boards. They outscored the Ags 46-22 in the paint and garnered 15 offensive rebounds. Our interior defense just did not handle their physical inside play.

The game was a foul-plagued affair with the zebras whistling 56 total fouls of which 31 were on the Aggies. Both teams were miserable from the FT line with the Ags shooting only 17 0f 32 for 53% and LB was only 1% better shooting 54% on 14-26. If the Ags had shot their normal percentage from the line they would have won the game but the same can be said for The Beach as well.

Siler Schneider led the way for the Aggies coming of the bench to score 21 points followed by Bryton Lemar with 15 and JT with 12. However, Schneider had 6 TO's and Lemar had 5 and that's way too many for two guards to have. Temidayo Yussef muscled his way in the paint to lead the 49ers with18 points.

One big concern for the Aggies of late is the absence of offensive production from Chima Moneke. In the last 4 games Chima has only scored a total of 35 points for an average of 8.8 ppg far below the 15 ppg he had been averaging. He is still grabbing rebounds and making some emphatic blocks but his shooting has fallen off to 27.5% on only 8-29 from the floor. Chima has been demonstrably frustrated lately and we need him to get untracked and give us some needed help on offense if we are going to stay in the title hunt.

The Aggies need to shake this loss of and get ready to play hard against a tough Fullerton team on Saturday night. Hopefully, we'll come home with a split.

BTW, Coach Bob Williams finally got his 500th win and the Gauchos beat Hawai'i 56-54 on a tip in with one second left in the game. Congrats to Coach Williams!

The stars aligned for the Aggies tonight as they take care of business by beating Hawai'i 69-50 while Long Beach State got upset by Cal Poly 69-67. So the Ags are now in sole possession of first place in the Big West.

Morgan Bertsch was brilliant again and led the Ags with 24 points on 11-19 shooting. Pele Gianotti was terrific also with 20 points on 9-14 from the floor. As a team the Aggies shot 53%, won the boards by a 34-29 count, had 6 blocks and only 8 TO's.

This was an all around excellent outing by the Aggies.

LB runs away from the Ags in OT 78-69

55-55 going to OT

The Ags trail LB 24-22 in a low scoring, defensive minded half of basketball. Both teams are playing well on defense but the Ags got killed on the defensive boards and allowed The Beach to gather in 10 offensive boards which led to them putting up 9 more shots. FT shooting continues to be an adventure for the Aggies also as they shot only 4-9.

The Ags are getting routed on the boards early on 15-7 in the first 9 minutes. That won't get it done.

I thought Coach Les was very honest in the interview. He acknowledged that we aren't the most talented team in the league but he likes the way the team plays together and unselfishly. Tough stretch of games ahead for the Ags.

I guess that would lessen the long lines for the students at the door.

This is great news for Coach Gould and his wife. He's back to doing what he does best coaching RB's and they both get to return to the bay area where they have deep connections. I wish him the best with The Cardinal.

This is definitely a big game for the Ags since we have such a tough conference schedule down the stretch compared to Irvine. The Aggies will need to have their defense playing at their highest level to try and slow the 49ers who lead the league at 81.6 ppg.

The Beach has weapons at every position and they spread the offense around a number of players. Loyola Marymount transfer guard, Evan Payne, averages 16.1 ppg followed guard, Justin Bibbins, at 16.0. USC transfer forward, Raschon Prince, averages 14.8 and is a load at 6'6 and 235 lbs. He also leads the league in rebounding with with 10.2 rpg.

Two players that Coach Les recruited but lost to Coach Monson have been instrumental in the 49ers attack this season: Temidayo Yussef is a wide body force in the paint at 6'7 and 250 and is averaging 12.3 ppg and Noah Blackwell, a 6'2 guard out of Woodcreek HS in Roseville, was averaging 13.0 ppg before going out recently with an injury. Their outstanding forward and yet another Loyola Marymount transfer, Gabe Levin, is also out injured.

The keys for the Ags will be to come out with good defensive intensity, take control of the pace of the game and protect the ball. We can't dig an early hole and expect to climb back out of it against a team that can score like The Beach. The Aggies will need to do their best not to get into foul trouble and send the 49ers to the line often since they are an excellent FT shooting team at 73%.

The Walter Pyramid is a tough venue for opponents to play in and it will take a superior effort by the Aggies to put this game in the win column. On the other hand, the Aggies have shown that they are a very cohesive and resilient team that has consistently found ways to win. If we bring our A game tonight we are capable of bringing home a victory.

Irvine beat Hawai'i 72-48 on the island to stay one game back of the Ags in the Big West. Luke Nelson put on a 3 point shooting display hitting 6 of 10 from downtown and scoring 29 points. He has the ability to hit NBA distance, fall away 3's. Nelson has missed much of the season due to injury and did not play in the game that Irvine lost to the Aggies in the Pavilion. The Anteaters are a much better team with him back in the lineup.

The Ags win today over Riverside was a very good win for them. The Aggie defense forced 21 TO's that led to 26 points for the Ags. I've watched every team in the Big West play at least one or more games now and I think the Ags are the best defensive team in the league. Everyone knows that Coach Les is intense and competitive and he gets more upset when the defense breaks down than he ever does when the offense is struggling. His philosophy of defense first is paying off as the Ags continue to win and maintain a one game lead over Irvine.

Brynton Lemar may have earned himself the Big West Player of the Week after his 29 point performance against Fullerton on Thursday and then leading the Ags with 14 today. His maturity and leadership are more and more evident with each additional game. Siler Schneider came off the bench and sparked the Ags to a nice lead in the first half with a trio of treys and, as usual, played pedal to the metal until fouling out late in the game. JT had one of his best outings of the season with 10 points and 6 boards and Mikey Henn chipped in 11.

The Highlanders 2-3 zone made things tough inside and they did a good job of bottling up Chima who finished with just 7 points, all from the FT line, but he also grabbed 8 rebounds in limited PT. Lawrence White did his usual great job of being disruptive defending and hustling for 50-50 balls and he had a beautiful baseline drive that ended with a thunderous dunk too.

All in all a nice crowd of 2607 got to see the defensive minded Aggies do what they do best and keep their unbeaten home winning streak going.

It doesn't look like we'll get any help from Hawai'i as Irvine takes a 35-20 lead into halftime. Luke Nelson has been hitting NBA distance 3's...impressive.

The Aggies came out with all guns blazing and shot off to a 29-4 lead after the first quarter. You would think that the Ags would then run off with the game but, after their blistering start, they managed only 17 points combined in the next two quarters and suddenly the Anteaters were only down 46-35 at the end of three.

The Ags got it going again in the 4th and won the game comfortably 62-42 but it wasn't one of their most polished efforts. The Aggies are now 1/2 game ahead of Long Beach State who was idle today and are most likely looking at a 20+ game winning season.

The Aggie defense held Irvine to just 22% FG shooting and the Ags also won the boards 48-36. Dani Nafekh led the Ags with 20 followed by Pele Gianotti with 14 and Morgan Bertsch with 12.