This week finds the Aggies trekking to SoCal for two tough road against Riverside tonight and Fullerton on Saturday. The road trip to Riverside and Fullerton are always seem to be difficult. Both teams are very athletic and the the games are played in small gyms with a lot of empty seats. That can make the environment tough for the visiting teams to get started with good energy and good focus. Both of these games are winnable for the Aggies but they could just as easily come home winless if they come out flat and dig themselves a holes early in these games.
Riverside's record is deceptive. They have couple of good wins. They started off the season beating Cal 74-65 and have a good win over Valpo 73-60. The Ags and the Highlanders have played a couple of common opponents. The Aggies beat Pacific twice this season while UCR lost to them at home 57-55 and both teams lost and both teams lost to Utah Valley on the road: the Ags lost by 9 and Riverside by 8.
Statistically, both teams compare equally in scoring and defense. The Highlanders are averaging 70.2 ppg and are allowing only 67.1 ppg on defense. The Aggies have the best defense in the league and the 35th best in the nation limiting their opponents to only 65.0 ppg while scoring 70.6 ppg on offense.
The Ags also lead the league in steals at 8.1 per game. On paper these two teams are very equal so it looks like this will be a dogfight with Riverside having the home floor advantage. The Aggie defense against Irvine last week was about as good as it gets and they'll need to play D like that again against UCR to be successful.
A trio of players lead the Highlander offense. Leading the way is their hometown grown 6'1 So G Dikymbe Martin at 12.8 ppg, then 6'3 RSr G Chance Murray with 11.6 ppg and their 6'10 Sr F Alex Larsson from Sweden scoring 10.4 ppg.
Win at home, split on the road, leaves us with a 21-9 overall record, 12-4 in conference. This feels like a split weekend, with a win tonight. We seem to struggle at Riverside, but hopefully we come out with the defensive intensity that we saw last week.
Riverside takes a 36-30 lead into the half in an ugly basketball game so far. I wouldn't want to be in the locker with Coach Les after that mistake laden half of basketball. The Aggies simply have not found anyone who is a consistent threat to knock down shots outside of the paint.
China one handed dunk? Unbelievable. Great game for the Ags.
Also a great game for the ladies Pela back in for form; and Cierra as a 5’10” point? Who will ever defend her?
The Ags will have their hands full at Fullerton on Saturday evening. The Titans came from behind to beat Irvine 67-64 at Irvine to stay undefeated in conference play.
We seem to struggle at Riverside offensively the last few years. I don't know if that's backed up with stats, or just my selective memory, but a 10 point win on the road against anyone in the BW, no matter how ugly, is a good one. I'm confident that we come out with more defensive intensity on Saturday.
BTW, it was nice having Scott Marsh do the play by play for ESPN3.
Nice win. Good to see Silar with a hot hand. We started ice cold but defense kept us in it until we got on that 13-2 run late in the first. Survived their late first half run and slowly chipped away, then pulled away. Nice road win. Fullerton will be a test for both teams.
Mooney is still struggling from three. Good looking shot but it’s not falling. I feel like he’s one hot spell from becoming a real threat for us.