UC Davis and Sacramento State basketball teams -- both mens and womens -- competed Friday in their home conference tournaments with hopes of ultimately advancing to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately they all came up short.
MEN
Sacramento State was defeated by Eastern Washington 91-83 in the Big Sky conference semifinals in Missoula, Montana Friday evening.
Felix Von Hofe hit 7 of 8 3-pointers to score a career-high 23 points and second-seeded Eastern Washington beat third-seed Sacramento State 91-83 to reach the Big Sky Conference championship game for the first time since 2004.
Venky Jois added 19 points, Brogdan Bliznyuk 16 and Parker Kelly, who surpassed 1,000 career points, 11 for the Eagles (25-8), who will face top-seeded Montana or fourth-seeded Northern Arizona in Saturday's finale.
With the Hornets (20-11) focused on Tyler Harvey, the nation's leading scorer (23.6) Van Hofe and Bliznyuk came off the bench to help carry the load.
Eastern Washington made seven-straight shots until a miss at the halftime buzzer. When Harvey scored his first basket to open the second half it was 51-34. The Eagles hit their first nine shots of the second half for a 72-45 lead when Von Hofe hit his seventh trey.
Eastern Washington shot 56 percent and made 15 of 25 3s, one shy of the tourney record. Harvey finished with nine points on 3 of 8 shooting and six assists.
League MVP Mikh McKinney led Sacramento State with 24 points and Dylan Garrity had 18.
UC Davis was defeated by Hawaii, 65-58, in the Big West conference semifinals in Anaheim
WOMEN
Sacramento State lost in overtime, 81-79 to Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Tournament in Missoula
UC Davis lost to Cal State Northridge, 61-47 in Anaheim
Ashlee Guay had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists to help No. 2 seed Cal State Northridge women beat fifth-seeded UC Davis 61-47 in the Big West Conference tournament semifinals on Friday.
Cinnamon Lister scored 13, Janae Sharpe added 10 and Camille Mahlknecht grabbed 12 rebounds for Northridge (22-9), which will play top-seeded Hawaii in the championship game Saturday.
Davis (13-16) made just 6 of 18 field-goal attempts and had as many turnovers (14) as points in the first half. It was the lowest-scoring half of the season for the Aggies.
CSUN led by 11 at the break, but Alyson Doherty's layup play capped a 17-5 run which pulled Davis within 33-31 with 10:56 to play.
Randi Friess, Guay and Lister hit 3-pointers on three-consecutive CSUN possessions to spark a 16-6 spurt and the Matadors led by 12 with six minutes remaining. Guay scored eight during that stretch and Davis trailed by double figures the rest of the way.
Doherty finished with 14 points and Celia Marfone added 12 with 10 rebounds for Davis.
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