12/21 scores:

Riverside 82 Idaho 67
Cal Poly 66 Omaha 53
Hawaii 69 Portland 56

"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

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."

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.

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.

Sac just keeps reloading. Their low academic requirements make it so much easier for them.

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

Very smart kid. Dos anyone remember another former wrestler and Aggies LB Tim Lajic? — 69aggie

I remember Lajcik. He was one of our best back in the day.

12/20 scores:

Cal 71 San Diego 68
New Mexico 78 Irvine 65
Fullerton 67 Pacific 66
Santa Barbara 94 Howard 81

How tough is Stanford? Coach Trish VanDerveer’s charges played without injured frontliners Courtney Ogden and Jzaniya Harriel and still got six players in double digits.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/no-9-stanford-beats-ucd-women-92-52/article_e8a00f1c-9fac-11ee-85cc-cb1eded1c40a.html

"Right now we're not willing to do the hard things to be a good basketball team," said a discouraged Aggie head coach Jim Les afterward.

"We need to take charge and be physical and contest every loose ball and we didn't do that. When we miss an easy one on the offensive end, that disappointment carries over on defense. We have to fight through adversity to get where we want to be."

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/grizzlies-make-themselves-at-home/article_e9bc8f28-9ef9-11ee-8410-b31c81b445b6.html

Unsurprisingly, the Aggies took a solid beating at Stanford today 92-52.

The Ags trailed big early and were never really in the game. They fell behind 34-15 at the end of the first quarter and trailed 60-25 at the half and 80-33 at the end of the 3rd. Stanford called off the rout in the 4th and the Aggies outscored them 19-12.

The Aggies stand at 4-6 for the season and begin Big West play at Santa Barbara on December 28th.

Whew!

I just checked out the signing page for Sac State. They're showing 15 signees and you can click on each player and it opens a full page with extensive information about the player including height, weight, personal bio, stats from high school or their previous college, and star ratings from various recruiting sites. There is a photo as well for many of the players too. I wonder why we don't get that kind of information on our official Signing Day page?

Ok. I'm sure he's on scholarship.

I noticed that there are two players we have listed that are not included on the Official Signing Day page on the Athletics website:

1. The highly regarded, dual threat QB Damon Wrightster from Inglewood. I sure hope we haven't lost him.
2. Jace Rodrigues OL transfer from Stony Brook - maybe he can't be listed because he's a transfer..??

I’m sure they would give a scholarship to the mysterious left tackle, he who can’t be named, if they hadn’t already. — Riveraggie

What is this "mysterious left tackle" thing about?

12/19 games:

CSUN 76 UCLA 72 - Another great win for the Big West. CSUN led by as much as 19 in the second half and hung on for the upset win.

Long Beach 107 Cal State Dominguez Hills 78
Bakersfield 96 South Dakota 76

Ags lose 73-61.

Guard oriented teams need to be able to make up for their lack of interior strength by shooting well from 3 and driving the ball for layups and getting fouled. We are shooting only 32% from 3 and only 69% from the FT line and those percentages don't bode well for us when the Big West play begins.

36-30 Montana at the half.

Kane Milling is having a good game so far. DeBruhl went down with an injury. Pepper hampered with 2 early fouls including a technical hasn't been a factor in the game yet.