Men’s Basketball — UCSD had a long and disappointing weekend
at home, losing to conference opponents in two overtime games on consecutive
nights.
The Tritons fell to
on Spirit Night, Jan. 25, by a 68-58 final score, taking the game into overtime
in front of a record-sized crowd of 3,906. The next night, UCSD went on to play
two extra periods, and lost 97-93 to
With the losses — the Tritons’ first at home and first back-to-back conference
defeats all season — UCSD stands at 9-6 overall and 6-4 in California
Collegiate Athletic Association play. Now just past the season’s midway point,
UCSD sits tied for fourth place in the CCAA.
The battle between the top two three-point shooting teams in
the conference was decided from long distance when
and UCSD squared off. Unfortunately, while the Tritons held the statistical
advantage entering the game in three-point defense, the Otters sniped well from
behind the arc at both the end of the fourth quarter and the overtime periods.
The Tritons’ competitive spirit guided them to a 27-26 lead
at halftime. Head coach Chris Carlson’s squad would find itself up again in the
final minutes of the game, seemingly ready to avenge its loss from the previous
evening to
With the Tritons up four and under a minute to go, senior
guard Clint Allard drew a foul and went to the line for a one-and-one
opportunity. Allard could not convert on the first attempt and Cal State
Monterey Bay took possession, responding with a three-pointer from way behind
the arc to cut the Tritons’ lead to 64-63 with 17.2 seconds left on the clock.
Sophomore guard Jordan Lawley responded on the other end,
drawing a foul and calmly knocking down two free throws to push the lead back
to three points. However, the Otters made another miracle three-pointer,
connecting from the corner with just three-tenths of a second left on the
clock, that sucked the air out of RIMAC Arena.
Having come so close to victory, a determined UCSD squad
came out firing in the overtime period, taking the lead and going up two
possessions after an Allard three-pointer with
left to play. However, the Otters’ hot streak from long distance tied the game
at 77 with just over a minute left. Junior forward Henry Patterson then helped
the Tritons regain the lead, moving around two defenders for a layup and one of
his 18 successful field goals, coming by way of only 20 attempts.
Unfortunately, the Otters would again tie the game in the waning seconds, and a
jumper from junior guard Kelvin Kim was off the mark on the Tritons final
possession of the first overtime.
Patterson again struck first for UCSD in the second extra
period with a layup, but the Otters responded with a three on the other end.
But this time,
would be the one to take a lead in the final minute. Despite a staunch Triton
defense that forced a crucial turnover on an inbounds pass, the shots would not
fall for UCSD as the Tritons lost their third overtime game in four chances.
According to Carlson, the double-overtime loss stretched the
limits of the team and tested its worth.
“Coming out of that adversity you learn how tough you are
and what the measure of your group is, both individually and collectively,” he
said. “We competed well. We just didn’t compete well enough.”
Carlson said that Patterson’s explosive performance was
outstanding but that the Tritons could not convert on all of their
opportunities.
“Offensively, we didn’t execute a lot of things we wanted to
do tonight. Henry Patterson had a good game, but we want to try and execute a
few other things and I had to ride Henry too much,” Carlson said. “Tonight we
relied on him so much to make shots and we just weren’t clicking tonight.”
Patterson set a career-high with 37 points, grabbed five
rebounds, dished out a team-high four assists, blocked a game-high two shots,
and recorded one steal in a team-high 45 minutes of play.
Despite the personal achievement, it was the mark in the
loss column, and not the point total, that stuck with Patterson after the game.
“It doesn’t matter if you score 100 points and you lose,”
Patterson said. “Coming off of last night we were really pumped up and we knew
we had to redeem ourselves. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out that way.”
Lawley scored 15 points with four rebounds and two assists,
while Kim contributed 14 points with four rebounds and four assists against the
Otters. Allard pitched in with 13 points, three rebounds and four assists.
As a team, UCSD shot 56.9 percent from the floor, committing
only 11 turnovers. However, the Otters connected on 59.1 percent of their
three-point opportunities, turned the ball over only twice more and held a slim
rebounding edge.
The record-sized crowd on Spirit Night was intensely
cheering a Triton team that was off to its best start in the program’s Division
II history. Unfortunately, the Tritons’ game against San Francisco State did
not begin as impressively as their previous games, as both teams struggled from
the floor, with UCSD shooting only 30 percent and the Gators connecting on just
36 percent of their first-half field goal attempts. After Lawley hit one of two
free throws to tie the game at 14 with
left in the half, both squads suffered from a nearly four-minute scoring
drought that included seven missed shots, four fouls and three turnovers.
Junior forward Darryl Lawlor ended the scoring lull with two free-throws at the
six points each in the final 10 minutes of the half and went into the break
tied at 20.
The two teams remained close throughout the second half,
turning up the intensity and putting on a show for the raucous Spirit Night
crowd. Again, defense would play a bigger role than offense, with the largest
lead of the half amounting to only a six-point Triton advantage. Two successful
three-pointers cut the UCSD advantage in the final minutes. The Gators would
tie the game from the free-throw line at 48 with just over a minute remaining.
Neither team allowed a score before the buzzer, sending the teams into the
five-minute overtime.
put an unhappy end to the Spirit Night festivities, scoring the first 12 points
in overtime and not allowing the Tritons to get closer than six the rest of the
way.
Carlson said that the Tritons could have performed better
and should have come out of the weekend with at least one win, but he is
confident that the Tritons still have their best performances ahead of them.
“There have been very few games where we haven’t been in or
had a chance to win,” he said. “If there’s one encouraging point, it’s that I
don’t think we played close to our best this weekend, but we still had chances
to win. We competed well … we’re just not closing the deal.”
Junior guard Andrew Hatch led UCSD on offense with 12 points
in 26 minutes off the bench, while Lawlor and Kim added 10 points apiece. UCSD
recorded eight steals and forced 20 Gator turnovers, but San Francisco State
won the rebounding battle, 42-33, and held the Tritons to just 4-of-19 from
three-point range.
The Tritons will attempt to end their two-game slide as they
conclude their five-game home stand this week with a Jan. 29 matchup against
Canyon
Stanislaus on Feb. 3.
Patterson said he has no doubt that the Tritons will bounce
back and play to their potential this week.
“We just need to keep our focus and the main thing is
staying together. A lot of teams have a tendency during adversity to stray
apart from each other and develop grudges against one another,” Patterson said.
“We just have got to stay together as a family and weather the storm. We’ll get
through it.”
