The UCSD men’s basketball team was unable to halt its season-high losing streak, extending the streak to five games by dropping a pair of road games on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22. Cal State Dominguez Hills stifled the Tritons on Jan. 21, 62-44, at the Torodome. The slide in their California Collegiate Athletic Association play continued on Jan. 22 as the team fell, 71-55, to Cal Poly Pomona at the Kellogg Gym.
The Tritons’ pair of losses drops them to 5-9 overall and 2-6 in conference play. Against Cal Poly Pomona (11-4 overall, 6-2 CCAA), UCSD fell behind early, 14-2, after only eight minutes of play. The Tritons, unable to come up with any type of an early scoring run, found themselves down 19 points with less than four minutes to play in the half. However, the Triton defense forced a number of missed shots and turnovers by the Broncos. The Tritons went on an 8-0 run to close the half, capped by a buzzer-beating three-pointer by freshman guard Clint Allard.
The UCSD men never got closer than the 30-19 halftime deficit. The Broncos opened up a 15-point lead after halftime and pushed their lead to 19 points at the midway point of the second half. The Tritons were unable to sustain a long scoring run as they battled back and forth with the Broncos from then on.
Forwards David Sybesma and Jeff Bonds led Cal Poly Pomona with solid all-around games. Sybesma led the team in scoring and assists, with game-highs of 18 and five, respectively, and tied Bonds and guard Hervey Malone II for the team lead with five rebounds. Bonds also accounted for 15 points, three assists, three steals and two blocks in the game. Dion Cook contributed a career-high 16 points for the Broncos.
Sophomore guard Robby Peter’s 12 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting led the Tritons. Andrew Hatch had nine points, while sophomore forward Parker Berling led the team with five rebounds and added five points, four assists and two blocks. Junior guard Odioh Odiyeh had eight points, four assists and four steals.
The loss was the second in as many days that the Tritons were behind the entire game.
The Jan. 21 loss to Cal State Dominguez Hills (4-11 overall, 3-4 CCAA) in Carson, Calif., did not start as badly for UCSD. It was the Toros who made a run to close the first in this game, going on an 11-2 spurt to take a 31-15 lead into the half.
The Toros, who UCSD swept, 2-0 in 2004, were too much for the Tritons, out-rebounding them, 41-26, and holding them to a 28 percent field-goal percentage for the game. In the second half, they used a 9-2 run early on to open up the lead and were up by as many as 25 points with less than five minutes to play. The Tritons’ 11-4 run at the end of the game wasn’t enough to close the gap.
The Toros had three players scoring in double digits, with Eric Crookshank scoring a game-high 12 points and Phillip Givens and Quenton Harvey adding 11 apiece. Lee Norman led the team and the game with 12 rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double with his eight points.
Peters led the Tritons in scoring with eight points off the bench and also led the team in rebounds and assists, tallying five boards to go with his game-high four assists.
UCSD will have three chances to end its losing streak in the upcoming homestand. The Tritons tip off against Grand Canyon on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at RIMAC Arena, then take on Sonoma State and San Francisco State on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, respectively.
