“It was a great underdog effort,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les.
“Our effort and intensity were there and our guys played their tails off with an unbelievable effort. Our play was just superb and I couldn’t be more proud of this group. You know how I hate to lose, so I don’t say that lightly.”
“We had to change things up at the last minute, but our guys really responded,” Les added.
In the absence of Anigwe and Beasley, 83 percent of UCD’s points came from Pepper and Johnson, who entered the game averaging 20 and 16 points a game, respectively.
Johnson tied his season and career high with 32 points, while Pepper had 28 for the second straight game. The two combined for eight 3-pointers to keep the Aggies in the game. No other Aggie had more than four points.
Pepper added four rebounds, four assists and four steals in what has become a routine effort for the Aggie junior.
“Those two were awesome,” Les noted. “We leaned on them more than we would have liked to, but again, it was a tremendous effort and we just came up a little bit short.”
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