UC Merced and the Aggies have both played William Jessop. The Aggies beat Jessop 86-51 and the Bobcats won their game 68-62.

Today's game will be an exhibition game for UC Merced but it will count as a regular game for the Aggies. The Bobcats are currently beginning the process of transitioning from NAIA to DII. They will be joining the California Collegiate Athletics Association and will begin DII play in the CCAA in the 2025-26 season.

Adding UC Merced brings the CCAA membership to 13 institutions throughout the Golden State. This includes current members Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State East Bay, Cal State LA, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State San Marcos, Chico State, San Francisco State, Sonoma State, and Stanislaus State. These members combine to make up the largest enrollment of any conference in NCAA Division II.

https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2023/uc-merced-set-join-california-collegiate-athletic-association-transition-ncaa-division-ii

Looks like the CCAA is a merger of the old Far Western Conference with the southern Cal based CCAA and that's how UCD was in the CCAA for a while?

UCD, along with several of the NorCal CSUs that are still there, joined the CCAA when the NCAC folded in the 98-99 timeframe, if I recall correctly.

edit: FWC became the NCAC in 82

edit 2: yes, basically you're right.

Good info, thanks. Wife and i are planning on making it. I’m expecting another light crowd considering the holiday break.

Better turnout than I expected at least on the west side. Looks like a lot of players families based on the signs.

Leo not dressed

Audwin Thomas is in the crowd. Pepper has 5 so he's only 16 away from overtaking Thomas as the all-time leading scorer in Aggie history.

I didn't realize until I heard Bob Dunning say it, but the single game scoring record of 40 by Corey Hawkins was set in Hawai`i and I was at that game. I am pretty sure it is the only win by the Ags (so far) at Hawai`i.

47-20 Aggies at the half. Pepper has 10 so he's 11 away from the record.

Interesting note: Connor Sevilla's older brother Aiden plays for Merced so we have two brothers playing against each other tonight.

The brothers are even guarding each other.

And Pepper breaks the record on a layup!!!

I really liked it that they were able to stop the game and let the players and the team congratulate Eli for breaking the scoring record that had stood for 44 years. Keep in mind that, when Thomas set the record, there wasn't a 3 point shot. Thomas was an amazing Aggie in his day and age.

The halftime interview with Audwin Thomas was great. He talked about how Coach Hamm brought him up from Oakland to play in Davis. He said it was a tough adjustment for him coming to Davis after growing up in Oakland but that Hamm "just put his arms around me" and always supported him. He said, "it was great playing for Hamm."

Very electric being at the game and seeing Eli break the record. And solid performance by the rest of the guys. The Sevillas were sitting behind us. Enjoyable visiting with them.

But Pepper scored the majority of his points against significantly better teams than Thomas would have faced so it sort of evens out.

"I'm on top of the world," said Pepper after the game. "I'm so appreciative of all of my teammates. I had the chance to meet Audwin the other day, he's a great guy and I'm also just so appreciative of all of my coaches and everything they've done for me."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2023/12/21/mens-basketball-elijah-pepper-breaks-uc-davis-all-time-scoring-record.aspx

Sounds like Pepper's record should go in the books with an asterisk due to his 5 years. Audwin looks like he could still play. We should have suited him up!

Remember that the Aggies only played 18 games in the 2020-21 season since 11 games were cancelled due to Covid and 8 more games were cancelled in the 2021-22 season. So there were 19 games cancelled during his career which is 2/3 of a whole season. He also has 20 more conference games yet to play to add to his total so his record will probably stand for a very long time.

Makes sense. So he’ll have 4 1/3 years when done and he likely passed it before a full 4 years at this point, so it’s legit.

It's nothing like the NFL where they used to play 12 game seasons and is now 17 so any single season and most career records need to have asterisks. (This is sarcasm as I think back to when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record.)

But would you rather have the Bambino or Ohtani?

I'd rather have Jim Brown.