The Tritons’ men’s basketball team split a pair of weekend home games at RIMAC Arena, losing to Chico State on Feb. 11 before rebounding for a victory over Cal State Stanislaus on Feb. 12.
The 82-66 loss to Chico State (14-6 overall, 9-4 California Collegiate Athletic Association) ended the Tritons’ three-game winning streak, while the 71-68 Feb. 12 victory gave UCSD (10-11 overall, 6-8 CCAA) a season sweep of its series with Cal State Stanislaus (4-17 overall, 2-12 CCAA).
After the Tritons’ 71-70 overtime victory over Cal State Stanislaus in their first meeting of the season, everyone was expecting a similarly exciting game. The Tritons unintentionally let that happen. After going into halftime with a two-point lead in a tough back-and-forth game, UCSD was able to open its intermission advantage to a 10-point cushion with just over seven minutes left to play. However, the team nearly let the lead evaporate after Warriors Ross Green’s three-pointer cut the deficit to one point with five seconds to play. Sophomore guard Mark Lewkowitz was able to calmly sink two free throws, and a missed three-pointer by Warrior point guard Jeremiah King at the buzzer sealed the victory for the Tritons.
UCSD was able to hold on thanks to some Warrior miscues at the free-throw line. Shooting only .630 from the line, and a subpar .273 three-point percentage, the Warriors couldn’t capitalize on their 32-23 rebounding advantage, to pull out a victory. UCSD was able to hold its own thanks to a stout .758 free-throw percentage and .524 field goal percentage.
Freshman guard Andrew Hatch led all scorers with 16 points and added three assists, a team-high six rebounds and a game-high three steals. Fellow freshman guard Clint Allard added 11 points and a game-high five assists. Sophomore forward Parker Berling had 15 points, shooting 2-for-3 from the field and 11-for-12 from the free-throw line, and sophomore guard Robby Peters had 10 points and three rebounds off the bench to round out the Tritons in double-digits.
Forward Kavin Young led the Warriors with 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. Green had 14 points, going 3-for-4 from long distance, while King had seven points and tied Allard for the game high with five assists.
Against Chico State, the Tritons found themselves outworked on the boards and unable to overcome their 20 turnovers as they watched their winning streak come to an end. The team reverted to its bad habit of falling behind early, down 17-0 six minutes into the game. UCSD scored its first points of the game at the 12 minute, 31 second mark, which cued a 10-0 run on their part. After scoring the final three points of the half, the Tritons found themselves down a manageable eight points.
In the second half, the Wildcats were unwilling to allow UCSD to make things interesting. The team scored the first two points of the half to push its lead to double-digits and never led by less than that. The Tritons, who shot a solid .500 from the field, including .426 from long distance, couldn’t make up any ground, and Chico State pushed its advantage to 20 with fewer than eight minutes to play, with the Tritons unable to make a game out of it.
The Wildcats were led by reserve Jason Van Eck, who scored a game-high 19 points in 13 minutes of play. Guard Scott Land had 12 points and center Will Bonner added 10 on 5-for-5 shooting from the field. The Triton scoring attack was less balanced. Led by a trio of freshman guards, the Tritons were unable to keep it close with Chico State. Allard had a team-high 16 points, while Hatch notched eight points, and Joey Toboni added eight points in eight minutes of play. Sophomore forward Parker Berling and sophomore forward Zackary Craddock tied for the team high with four rebounds, while Berling added seven points and Craddock contributed five points.
UCSD returns to action on Feb. 16, traveling to take on CCAA leader Cal State San Bernardino for a 7:30 p.m. match-up. The team will then play its second road game of the week as they travel to Cal State Monterey Bay for a 7:30 p.m. game on Feb. 19.
