UCSD had two of its most interesting home games of the season this past weekend, starting with Spirit Night on Jan. 24, which boasted the biggest crowd at RIMAC Arena this year when 2,340 fans from the six colleges at UCSD came out to compete against one another at one final spirit event. On Jan. 25, though only a disappointing 417 showed up to root for the Tritons’ men’s basketball team, the game against UC Davis went into double overtime, resulting in a 105-100 Triton loss.
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Chico State came to town on Jan. 24 and was able to win the game with accurate shooting by a final score of 92-69. The Wildcats posted a shooting percentage of 53 and sunk 14 three-pointers, finishing 48.3 percent from beyond the arc.
All night, the shots would not fall for UCSD, who only made 37.3 percent of its shots and an even smaller 19.4 percent of its three-point shots.
The Tritons’ only lead was in the first few seconds of the game when, after winning the jump ball, Jordan Watkins made a jump shot from inside the key.
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Both teams, possibly inspired by the intensity and volume of the fans, played an intense game on Spirit Night, which resulted in two technical fouls and 40 personal fouls between the two teams. Additionally, numerous loose balls and contested rebounds led the referees to call many jump balls throughout the game.
UCSD’s success story was freshman Adam Snyder, who only played for a total of 23 minutes but managed to grab seven rebounds and contribute 18 points to the Triton effort.
Sophomore Watkins and freshman Matthew Sweany also added 12 points each to the final score.
Jan. 25 proved much more interesting when the Aggies and the Tritons battled through two overtimes to determine the final outcome of the game. UCSD was outscored 11-6 in the final overtime, resulting in the heartbreaking loss.
However, the Tritons shooting improved tremendously from the previous night. They made 51.5 percent of their shots in the Jan. 25 game.
Sean Crawford and Watkins both surpassed the 20-point plateau, scoring 26 and 22 points, respectively. Twelve of Crawford’s points resulted from three-point shots.
Cameron Jackson also contributed 18 points, while C.J. Duffaut finished the game with 14 points.
Snyder had another break-out evening where he achieved his third career double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
UCSD was competitive the whole game, leading at halftime with a score of 30-25. UC Davis then outscored the Tritons by five in the second half leading to the first overtime where both teams scored 20 points. In the second overtime, the Aggies were was again able to outscore the Tritons by five.
