The UCSD men’s basketball team continued a recent trend, splitting a pair of weekend games against California Collegiate Athletic Association opponents for the third straight weekend. The Tritons traveled to San Francisco State on Jan. 26 and held off a second-half surge by the Gators for a 63-58 victory. They traveled to Cal State Monterey Bay the next night, but were unable to overcome second-half struggles in that game, falling by a 71-55 margin. The Tritons now hold a 6-10 record overall, 4-7 in CCAA play.
Sophomore guard Shane Poppen snatched 10 rebounds in the match against the Gators for a 63-58 victory on Jan. 26, but the Tritons got swept up by the Otters 55-71 on Jan. 27.
UCSD started strong against Cal State Monterey Bay, building a nine-point lead against the Otters with 13 minutes and 33 seconds left in the first half. The Otters’ 10-0 run in the next three minutes gave them a lead, with the two teams battling throughout the rest of the half, trading leads with neither holding more than a four-point advantage. UCSD would lead by three at the half following a layup by sophomore forward Shane Poppen and two free throws by junior transfer forward Brett Stuckey.
The Tritons, who shot an astonishing 61.5 percent from the field in the first half, struggled in the second. After scoring five points in the first minute and a half after the break, UCSD would connect only five more shots from the field throughout the rest of the game. UCSD went seven for 23 from the field in the period, including one for seven from long distance. Cal State Monterey Bay grabbed its first lead of the half with 10:18 left to play and continued to build until the final score, which was also the biggest lead of the game for either team.
“”We had no problem on defense and getting them to take bad shots, but we struggled down the stretch with blocking out,”” said sophomore forward Henry Patterson.
Patterson led UCSD with a season-best 21 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds, while junior guard Clint Allard and senior guard Robby Peters added 10 points apiece and Stuckey chipped in six points and two rebounds. Unfortunately, no other Triton scored more than one field goal in the contest. The Otters, meanwhile, were led by a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds from Richard Jenkins, but converted on less than 50 percent of his field-goal attempts, including just over 30 percent from long distance. However, Cal State Monterey Bay was good on 15 of its 17 free-throw attempts, while UCSD converted only four of 11. Both teams had just eight turnovers in the game.
The Tritons started even better against San Francisco State, scoring the first seven points of the game and allowing three Gator points through the first 12:27, building a 15-point lead in the process. The Triton defense, which has been strong throughout the season, was at the top of its game, forcing nine first-half turnovers and holding the Gators to just over 20 percent field-goal shooting, 11.1 percent three-point shooting, and 53.8 percent free-throw shooting. The Tritons were also efficient offensively, with 12 points in the paint compared to zero for San Francisco State.
An early run in the second half cut the Tritons’ 12-point lead to five, but UCSD responded and built its biggest lead of the game, 48-31, with 11:43 remaining. Two three-pointers in 35 seconds by Dean Wilson started what would be a 23-6 run by San Francisco State that tied the game at 54 with 4:21 left in the game.
“”We had trouble playing with a considerable lead,”” Patterson explained. “”Everyone committed to doing their job during the last couple minutes. We executed our defense and made some tough shots on offense.””
Field goals by freshman guard Jordan Lawley and Allard in the next minute gave UCSD the lead for good. Two free throws by Arcenio Ramirez cut that lead to one with just over two minutes left in the game, but another Allard jumper, two Peters free throws and UCSD’s strong defense silenced the Gators until the final horn and gave the Tritons a hard-fought five-point win.
UCSD got double-digit nights from Patterson with a team-high 15 points, Allard with 11 points (along with a game-high four assists and two steals) and sophomore forward Darryl Lawlor, who came off the bench for 10 points in 17 minutes. Poppen was also instrumental coming off the bench, scoring seven points and grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Tritons will begin the second half of their CCAA schedule at Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State next weekend on Feb. 2 and 3 respectively. UCSD will then return home for seven of its final nine regular-season games, including the Spirit Night game against Cal State Sonoma on Feb. 9.
