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UC Irvine women bounced by UC Davis in Big West Tournament semifinals

March 15, 2025

It might have seemed unusual the way the game unfolded between the UC Irvine and UC Davis women’s basketball teams on Friday afternoon, except a very similar scenario played out in the other Big West Tournament semifinal an hour earlier.

Second-seeded UCI fell into a big first-half hole against Davis, clawed its way back in the second half, but could never get over the hump and ultimately lost, 63-56, at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada.

The third-seeded Aggies (21-11) advanced to play fourth-seeded UC San Diego (19-15) in the championship game on Saturday at 3 p.m.

UCSD, which became eligible to play in the Big West Tournament this season after joining the conference four years ago, raced out to a 22-4 lead after the first quarter against top-seeded Hawaii, led by as much as 27 late in the second, but needed a layup at the buzzer by Sumayah Sugapong to beat the top-seeded Rainbow Wahine, 51-49.

Hawaii (22-9) and UCI (21-10) had earned double byes into the semifinals by finishing in the top two spots in the regular-season standings.

UCI coach Tamara Inoue said there’s some benefit to UCSD and Davis having a game under their belt heading into the semifinals, but she doesn’t believe the top two seeds were at a disadvantage.

“This conference has done a tremendous job of protecting your one and two seeds in the best way possible,” Inoue said.

The Anteaters didn’t have to storm from as far back as Hawaii, but they did trail by 10 after the first quarter and by as many as 21 in the second.

UCI scored the first 11 points of the second half to trim the deficit to eight, was within five to begin the fourth quarter and made it a one-point game on a free throw by Summah Hanson with 5:37 remaining, and again on drive by Ines Gnahore with 4:34 left.

That was as close as the Anteaters could get, however.

Tova Sabel, who scored a game-high 21 points for UCD, sank a deep 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and then finished off a 2-on-1 break to give the Aggies a 58-52 lead with 2:19 left.

“They made that one 3 in the second half that really gutted us,” Inoue said.

The possibility of a comeback still looked promising when Sabel fouled out on a three-point play by Deja Lee, trimming the lead to 58-56 with 1:02 left, but Nya Epps made a difficult left-handed bank shot on the run with 41 seconds remaining to extend the lead back to two possessions.

Hunter Hernandez scored 15 points, Lee scored 13 and Gnahore scored 10 off the bench for the Anteaters, who were trying to advance to the championship game for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

They beat Davis in the championship game last season for their first Big West Tournament title since 1995, and knocked off the Aggies in both regular-season meetings this year, including on a last-second shot by Nikki Tom on March 6.

“Watching another team cut down the nets last year, it sticks with you,” UCD coach Jennifer Gross said. “It motivates you, it drives you, and our goal was to give ourselves that opportunity again.”

Something that has been an Achilles heel for UCI flared up again in the first half against the Aggies and that dampened its chances of keeping the score close.

UCI shot 6 for 30 (20%) from the floor in the first half, including 1 for 13 from 3-point range.

“It wasn’t our offense,” Inoue said. “It was just about making shots in tournament time. That’s what matters and the way we shot the ball, I was happy with what we looked at, it just didn’t go down.”

The Anteaters missed six of their first seven shots to start the game, while the Aggies made five of their first seven to open an early 15-2 lead.

Davis then went without a field goal for the final 6:02 of the opening quarter, but the Anteaters couldn’t take advantage and only trimmed the lead to 15-7 before the Aggies re-established a double-digit lead entering the second.

UCI shot 3 for 16 from the field in the opening quarter and missed all seven of its 3-point attempts.

“After that first media timeout, I just wanted to go check (the rim), just put a ball through that hoop to see if there was anything on it,” Inoue joked. “I thought we got really good looks, they were in and out.”

The Aggies continued to expand their lead in the second quarter.

Ryann Bennett, Sabel and Mazatlan Harris each hit deep 3-pointers in the opening three minutes to increase the lead to 28-11.

Bennett was inadvertently elbowed in the face by Lee with 3:32 left in the half and Sabel made both free throws to give UC Davis its biggest lead of the game at 32-11.

Bennett, the team’s fourth-leading scorer, did not return.

The lone bright spot in the opening 20 minutes for UCI was Gnahore, who more than doubled her season average (3.4 ppg) by scoring seven points in the first half, the same as the starting five for UCI, and she made the only 3-pointer against 12 misses for the Anteaters.

UCI found its rhythm in the third quarter, shooting 4 for 5 from behind the arc and 10 for 16 overall while outscoring the Aggies 26-12 to cut the lead to five entering the fourth.

Orange County Register

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UC Irvine women bounced by UC Davis in Big West Tournament semifinals

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