Tritons Fall to 1-5 in CCAA Conference Play

Tritons Fall to 1-5 in CCAA Conference Play

The team fell to Cal State Stanislaus 70-64 and Chico State and will end their homestand this week

After a promising preseason start, the Tritons have since slipped to 1–5 in conference play, losing to Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State last weekend.

On Friday, the Tritons kept the game close with Cal State Stanislaus before suffering their worst loss this season against No. 21 nationally ranked Chico State.

The Wildcats ran away with the early lead knocking down three consecutive three-pointers, creating a lead which quickly grew to a 20-point gulf that the Tritons — 8-of-29 in the first half — could not gap.

UCSD still had trouble hitting shots coming out of the break, all the while struggling to match up with Chico’s bench, which contributed 20 points.

“To some degree, [missing easy shots] can become contagious,” first year head coach Eric Olen said to the UCSD Athletics Department.

UCSD veteran point guard James McCann was the only Triton to record double figures against the Wildcats, with 15 points in 34 minutes.

McCann had another big game Friday against Cal State Stanislaus, tallying 19 points and five assists, in a game where the Tritons had to battle from behind for the majority of the match. By the end of the first half, UCSD found themselves down 35–25, falling victim to Stanislaus’ sharpshooters, who went 7-of-13 from behind the arc.

“We dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole, and we were fighting the whole time to get ours elves back into the game,” Olen said. “We went on a run in the beginning of the second half and continued to fight. We gave ourselves a few opportunities, but ultimately we just came up a few plays short.”

Despite the loss, Friday’s match proved to be more of an ensemble performance than the Tritons’ game against Chico. Four players recorded points in double digits: freshman guard Adam Klie, sophomore guard Hunter Walker, senior guard MacKenzie McCullough and McCann.

This weekend, the Tritons will close out their five-game homestand with a Friday game against Cal State East Bay and Cal State Monterey Bay. Both with 2–4 records, the two Northern California squads should prove to be a good match for the Tritons.

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