On the Jan. 30 Spirit Night, the Triton men’s basketball team’s struggles continued as it returned home to a season-high crowd of 1,992 people with a loss to Sonoma State 74-65. The loss for UCSD now makes it six straight losses.
Guardian
The Tritons came out flat and were down by many points early. The Seawolves went ahead by a score of 29-13 with 9:55 left in the half. Junior forward Brandon Francis kept the game close at the end of the half with a couple of three-pointers, leaving UCSD to trail Sonoma State by only eight at the half, 44-36.
The Tritons came out inspired to start the second half and trimmed the lead to 51-50 on a tip by sophomore forward Matthew Conti. Sonoma State then dug in and the Tritons were unable to complete the comeback. Sonoma State went up by nine points late in the contest by going seven of 10 from the foul line.
This victory by Sonoma State snapped its four game skid, led by freshman forward James Tipton, who finished with game highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds for Sonoma State, while front court mate senior forward Lamar Abbott added 17 points and seven boards. Sonoma State junior guard Ryan Hensel and freshman Jeff Fuller also reached double figures with 16 and 11 points, respectively. Sophomore guard Chris Getty dished out a game-high eight assists.
The Tritons had four players scoring in double figures led by Francis’ 17 points. Redshirt freshman guard Adam Reinking scored 12 points, while junior center Jesse Boyd added 11 points, followed by sophomore guard Matthew Sweany’s 10-point effort.
The loss for the Tritons drops them to 4-12 overall and 4-7 in the Calfornia Collegiate Athletic Association.
UCSD was back in action the following night against San Francisco State at RIMAC Arena, but restuls of that game were not available at press time.
Next weekend, the Tritons will hit the road to face off against the same two teams that they played on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31. UCSD will take on San Francisco State on Feb. 6 and Sonoma State on Feb. 7.
