Tritons Finish Disappointing Season

    The Tritons finish the season 11-17 overall and 6-16 in conference play, putting them in 11th place in the conference standings. UCSD finished the season by losing its last three games, and dropping six of its last seven.

    Against Pomona, the defending national champion Broncos shot 49 percent from the field, including 62.5 percent in the first half. Pomona went into the break with a 33-19 advantage, and never led by less than seven the rest of the way.

    Tobias Jahn, Pomona’s German-born center, led the Broncos with a game-high 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Freshman point guard James McCann led the Tritons with 12 points, while junior center Christian Hatch added 10 points and five rebounds.

    After a layup for the opening basket gave the Tritons the lead, Pomona led the entire game.

    Against San Bernardino, the Tritons dropped another close game, making it the eighth game this year in which they lost by five points or less.

    “It shows how competitive we were,” head coach Chris Carlson said. “It’s unfortunate we couldn’t pull out those games. Disappointing, yes — but at the same time I feel good about our effort and what it took to get to that point.”

    UCSD trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half, but started chipping away at the Coyote lead, and went into the half down 38-31. The Tritons got within one point three times in the second half, but could never take the lead. A layup by senior guard Casey Ryan with 2:06 remaining brought the score to 69-68, but the Coyotes scored four straight points to gain a five-point advantage. Ryan made two free throws with 13 seconds remaining, and two missed free throws by the Broncos gave the Tritons a chance to tie the game with the score 75-72. But McCann’s three-pointer rimmed out and the Coyotes held on for the win.

    Ryan had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead the Tritons, and McCann, Justin Brue and Tyler McGrath all scored in double figures. Robbie Robinson paced the Coyotes with 17 points, although San Bernardino had five players in double figures.

    The Tritons suffered a lot of frustration this season, and had many opportunities to win games that slipped away.

    “It’s hard for me to pin it on one thing for every situation,” Carlson said. “For a number of our situations we had the ball at the end of the game and couldn’t make a shot. For a couple of them we didn’t make free throws down the stretch. There’s a couple times when we didn’t get the rebound we needed, and there’s a couple times when we just didn’t execute.”

    Midway through the season, the Tritons stood at 9-7 overall, but lost two games by a total of three points to Pomona and San Bernardino and only won twice for the rest of the season.

    “I always think back to that Pomona/San Bernardino weekend as a very impactful weekend for us,” Calrson said. “ I really feel that if things had gone differently in that weekend, it would have propelled us to a different plane.”

    But Ryan is the only graduating senior, and with a young team Carlson says he is optimistic that they can turn the close losses into wins.

    “I’ve been proud of our effort,” Carlson said. “Its tough night in and night out in this league. Going forward, we have to take care of those things that we can control: making free throws, blocking out. And some of it is just learning how to win, which we’re going to do.”

    Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].

    Season Wrap-Up

    UCSD finished the season 11-17 and 6-16 in the CCAA, putting the team in 11th place in the conference standings. However, little separates this team for its actual final standing and a team that makes the CCAA tournament, as the team lost eight games by five points or less. What the Tritons really lacked this season was someone to take the final shot. The Triton offense was always patient, and made up for a lack of outside shooting ability with excellent shot selection. But this really hurt the Tritons when time was running out, and their only consistent shooter — sophomore Tyler McGrath — could be covered by a taller and faster defender.  Freshman James McCann showed flashes of ability in the clutch, and, along with several of the other young Triton starters will be a real threat for the Tritons in years to come. This year, however, heartbreak and disappointment haunted a Triton season full of  “so close.”



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