The UCSD men’s basketball team suffered an opening game defeat to University of San Diego on Nov. 20, falling 74–35 to the Toreros at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Tritons, who returned no starters from the 2003-04 season, were held below 30-percent shooting for the game, which marked head coach Bill Carr’s UCSD debut.

UCSD began the night aggressively with a block and three rebounds in the opening minutes. After Torero senior center Brice Vounang scored the first points of the night, UCSD junior guard Odioh Odiye responded with a three-pointer. Freshman guard Andrew Hatch then answered a lay-up with a jumper, coming off of junior guard Zach Zanolli’s second assist.

The Toreros then picked up their offensive and defensive game, going on a 24-7 run. Triton sophomore guard Robby Peters gave UCSD some momentum heading into halftime with a three-pointer at the end of the half.

A balanced Torero team effort, in which head coach Brad Holland was able to get all 12 of his players some playing time, went on a 17-0 run early in the second quarter. The Tritons managed to get within 29 points on a three-point play by sophomore forward Chris Randall, who was named the Most Improved Player on last year’s team.

Randall and Peters led the Tritons with eight points each, while transfer student Odiyeh collected a game-high eight rebounds to go along with three points, one block and a team-high three assists. The Toreros had four players score in double digits, led by center Vounang with 12. Torero junior forward Corey Belser compiled an impressive stat line with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists, six steals and one block in 29 minutes. Belser came within one steal of the school record.

In front of a home crowd of 812, the Toreros shot .569 from the field and .467 from three-point range. After not making a trip to the foul line in the first half, the Toreros shot 11-for-14 in the second half, while the Tritons were 3-for-6 on foul shooting. The Tritons converted only four of 20 three-point attempts and were 14-of-48 from the field. USD also held the rebounding advantage, beating the Tritons 34-24 on the boards. The Toreros have now evened their record to 1-1 after suffering a season opening loss to the University of Arizona in the preseason. UCSD men’s basketball stands at 0-1 on the season and 1-16 all time against USD.