CSUN Defeats UC Davis To Punch NCAA Tournament Ticket

Photo Album Courtesy of the Big West Conference

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Fifth-seeded CSUN upset No. 1 seed UC Davis 63-55 in the finals of the Big West Women's Basketball Tournament presented by Memorial Care Saturday afternoon at the Honda Center.

UC Davis jumped out to a 19-9 lead after one quarter of play. CSUN outscored the Aggies 15-10 in the second quarter to make it 29-24 game at halftime. The Matadors made 10-of-16 field goal attempts in the third quarter, outscored UCD 21-11 to take a 45-40 lead after three quarters of play.

CSUN led by as many as seven in the final period before the Aggies closed to 55-53 when Rachael Nagel connected on a three-pointer at the 1:47 mark. Destiny Brooks' jump shot as the shot clock ran down banked in to give CSUN a four-point lead with 1:16 remaining. Tournament MVP Tessa Boagni grabbed a rebound off a Pele Gianotti on the ensuing UC Davis possession.

The ball ended up in Hayley Tanabe's hands and she was fouled. Tanabe made the first free throw but missed the second. All-Tournament selection Channon Fluker grabbed the offensive rebound. The ball was passed out to Brooks who was fouled. She made 1-of-2 attempts to increase the lead to six.

After an Aggies' timeout, Nagel missed a three-pointer which was rebounded by Boagni. The 6-2 forward was fouled, and she sank both free throw attempts to increase the CSUN lead to eight. CSUN called timeout to set the defense. The Matadors forced a Nagel turnover. Fluker was fouled. She made both to put CSUN up 10. A Morgan Bertsch layup with 20 seconds on the clock made it the final 63-55.

"I'd like to start off by saying something that our kids will never hear. I was completely wrong," said CSUN head coach Jason Flowers. "I stood in the locker room at Cal Poly told them that there was no way we could win the conference tournament playing zone defense. Obviously, I was wrong. With that being said, hats off to Jenn[ifer Gross]. Jenn does an outstanding job, she's the back-to-back coach of the year of this conference for a reason. She runs a great program. Their kids played extremely well, had a great season. We were looking forward to the battle, we knew it was going to be a tough challenge. I'm extremely proud of our young women. We talked about, before we left, it was not about what you win at the end of this. It's about who you become at the end of this. It's going to sound crazy but they've grown a lot in the last week and a half. I'm extremely proud of who they've become throughout this tournament, and hopefully that will propel us forward as we play next week and up until the offseason whenever that comes."

Boagni and Channon Fluker combined for 47 of the team's 63 points with Boagni registering 23 and Fluker notching 24. Fluker charted her 21st double-double of the year and her 53rd of her career as she grabbed a game high 17 rebounds. Fluker also posted a season high six assists and one steal. Bertsch led UC Davis with 22 points.

"I don't think they did anything different," Boagni said. "They're an amazing team. They have great shooters. They've got a great inside presence. We knew coming into the game that we had to dominate inside. That's our main strength. It's a chess match. We had won one lost one, so going in it was very even. They played their game, we played our game. At the end of the day I think we just wanted it more."

With the win, the Matadors became the first Big West women's basketball program to win four Big West Tournament games to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

"Yesterday, one of the parents brought up today's game as we were getting off the bus," Flowers said. "I told her that I told the team before we came that we're going to win the tournament. She said, 'how do you know that?' I said I prayed about it and I walked off. If you were in our locker room two weeks ago, if you followed this team all year and you said this was going to be the run, I don't know how many people would've signed up for that. It's only fitting that Drake's song ("God's Plan") was playing when we were cutting down the net."

The victory marks the third time in five years that the Matadors have won the Big West Tournament and advanced to the the NCAA's. The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Selection Show will be shown on ESPN beginning at 4 p.m. The Matador program will have a watch party that begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Pub on the CSUN campus in which the public is invited.

~www.GoMatadors.com~

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Team Stats

Channon Fluker

Tessa Boagni

Claudia Ramos

Destiny Brooks

Players Mentioned

Tessa Boagni

Destiny Brooks

Channon Fluker

Hayley Tanabe