The Tritons’ road trip north on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 resulted in a 70-53 loss at Sonoma State and a 71-63 loss in overtime at San Francisco State. However, the weekend proved one thing: if the UCSD men’s basketball team can make close to 50 percent of its shots, it will outscore the opponent.
On Jan. 31, Sonoma State outscored UCSD by 28 points in the first half. The deficit resulted from the Tritons making only 25 percent of their shots on the half and an 0-for-7 effort from beyond the arc.
UCSD came out of the locker room and dominated the second half, outscoring the Seawolves 41-30 and making 46 percent of its shots. However, the 11 points the team made up in the second half were not enough to overcome the first half setback.
When asked what he said to his team at halftime to inspire improvement, UCSD head coach Greg Lanthier said, “”We just needed to execute the offense and go with the defensive game plan. This was what we did on Saturday night.””
Feb. 1 did prove to be more successful for the Tritons, who lost in overtime when San Francisco State outscored UCSD 13-5.
Again, the Tritons fell behind in the first half when they made only 42 percent of their shots from the field. After the first 20 minutes, they left the court down by six with a score of 34-28.
UCSD was able to come back in the second half and dominate, making 50 percent of its shots to tie the game at 58.
In overtime, it was again shooting that cost the Tritons the game. The team went 1-for-9 while San Francisco State was able to complete 75 percent of their shots.
“”Shooting should be one of the strengths of this team because individually, we are all talented shooters. It just seems that we don’t hit our shots in games, so I don’t think we should necessarily alter practice, we just need to individually make our shots,”” said freshman Adam Snyder about the recent low shooting percentages.
Though the team came back with its sixth loss in a row, Snyder had another successful weekend. He lead the team in scoring with 13 points on Jan. 31 and again scored 13 on Feb. 1.
“”I am happy to be getting more minutes, but it was tough not to get a win this week,”” Snyder said.
This weekend’s main success story was red-shirt freshman Matt Conti, who got his first start on Feb. 1. He also earned his first collegiate double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the game.
“”Matt played a very physical game going for the boards,”” Lanthier said. “”It was great to see him get his first double-double.””
The Tritons will hit the road again next weekend to play CSU Bakersfield on Feb. 7 and CSU Stanislaus on Feb. 8.
