Aggies storm back and trail by only 2 now...53-51 with 3:54 to go!

He's a true homer...

Irvine is pulling away. Ags are ice cold and can not stop Irvine in the paint.
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I'm tired of him complaining about the Aggies "flopping" especially since the Ags are the one getting the short end of the stick by the officials on fouls.

Irvine jumps out to a 41-34 lead just 3 minutes into the second half. Ags can't stop them in the paint and are also cold as ice shooting.

32-31 Aggies at the half.

Irvine has made a living at the FT line...16-18 compliments of the officials and some silly Aggie fouls as well. TY didn't start but is playing and looks to be fine. Neither team is shooting the ball well as the defenses are dominating the game. Pepper has only 8 points on 2 of 7 shooting. Foul problems for the Aggie bigs.

17-16 Aggies with 7:50 to go in the first half. Defenses are dominating by both teams. Ags are having trouble defending Irvine's 7'1 center though.

Ags are off to an awful start. After forcing 3 straight Irvine TO's..the Ags can't make a basket...

Big West standings after the 1/04 games:

1/04 games:

Aggies 83 Riverside 63
San Diego 79 Santa Barbara 72
Hawaii 78 Bakersfield 67
Long Beach 89 Cal Poly 82
Irvine 75 Fullerton 67

The Ags will take the win but it was by the skin of their teeth. Surviving would be a more appropriate way to describe this win. The Ags were up 24 with 8 minutes to go in the game and Riverside cut the lead to 2 with under a minute to go. The Highlanders had 17 points off 19 Aggie TO's.

Riverside simply out played and out hustled the Ags the entire 4th quarter. The Aggie coaches can't be happy with that.

Huge 83-63 win by the Aggies.

The Aggie smothering defense was on full display especially in the first half and the Ags ended up holding Riverside to just 27% shooting for the game. The Aggies primarily play man but they played quite a bit of zone tonight as well and it was very effective. On the offensive end, the Aggies shot 60% overall along with 42% from 3 and 75% from the line. Pepper had 31 and DeBruhl, starting in place of TY who was out, had 14.

Riverside has some very quick guards that make their press tough for us especially with TY out. He's our quickest guard and we need him when team's press us.

Current Big West Standings:

12/30 games:

Aggies 71 Cal Poly 46
Irvine 75 Bakersfield 56
Riverside 79 Santa Barbara 77
CSUN 84 Long Beach 68
Fullerton 63 Hawaii 61 in OT on the island

The Aggies need to be much more aggressive rebounding and blocking out too. Too often they are just standing flat-footed under the basket when an opponent crashes in and grabs the rebound.

The Ags lost a tough one at Poly 57-54 today that was right there for the taking.

Norris hit a 3 with 10 seconds to go to put the Aggies up 54-53 but, after a time out, Poly scored an easy layup when no Aggie defenders cut off the drive. The Ags called time out and had the ball at midcourt with 6.7 seconds left. Sabel got fouled with 1.9 second to go but, unfortunately, she missed both FT's and Poly escaped with a win. 24 TO's didn't help the Aggies either.

The Aggie defense was excellent again. I haven't seen all the BW teams play this year but I've seen the front runners and I haven't seen anyone play tougher defense yet. I'm also glad to see Milling scoring more and looking more confident with each game. Rocak and Borra are making good progress also. Things are looking up!

33-27 Aggies at the half. The Ags got off to a fast start but then went through a scoring drought and Poly cut the lead to one before the Aggies created a little separation again. Pepper with 17.

Most coaches routinely step into the court or go past the black line that they are supposed to stay behind near the scorer's table but they don't go 6 feet onto the court, waving their arms and shouting at their players. It's ridiculous how the officials repeatedly allowed that.