MEN’S BASKETBALL ‘mdash; ‘The crowd was amazing,’ senior guard Alan Husted said after UCSD’s Spirit Night game. ‘I feel like they led us to victory today … We love the fans and hopefully they got a good show tonight.’
The men’s basketball team won in exciting fashion on Feb. 20, hitting clutch free throws down the stretch to eek out a 78-71 victory over San Francisco State in a packed RIMAC Arena. Head coach Chris Carlson’s squad kept the momentum going on Saturday, following the pre-game Senior Night ceremony with a fast start against Cal State Monterey Bay, ending the weekend with a 72-65 win against the Otters. UCSD holds an overall record of 15-9 (12-6 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association).
Husted offered the 3,408 fans at Friday night’s game something to cheer about early on, taking senior center A.J. Maulhardt’s pass for a layup, scoring the game’s first basket. But San Francisco State’s Alex Thomas took some air out of the crowd, scoring the Gators’ first nine points on three scores from beyond the arc within the game’s first three and a half minutes. Thomas then added his fourth successful three-pointer on four first-half attempts with 14:45 to play, giving San Francisco State an early 14-8 advantage.
Fortunately for the players and their fans, the six-point deficit stood as the largest of the half for UCSD. Junior guard Tyler Acevedo came off the bench with 7:33 remaining and immediately connected on a layup and a three-pointer. Senior guard Kelvin Kim and Husted then followed up with a field goal apiece. Maulhardt assisted on all four shots, as UCSD grabbed its first lead since the start of the game with just over three minutes left in the half. The tight first
half ended with a Gator buzzer beater, tying the score.
‘There were a couple moments where we didn’t finish plays very well,’ Carlson said. ‘We got contested shots and didn’t block out. The rebounding totals were in our favor, but we didn’t get rebounds when we really needed them. Our transition defense let us down a couple of times. We need to get back there and take care of the hole, like we normally do.’
The two squads played even closer throughout much of the second half, with the lead changing six times and the score tied on eight occasions during the final 20 minutes of play. The Gators held another lead with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, but never extended beyond a two-possession advantage. After junior guard Jordan Lawley and senior forward Shane Poppen each hit 1-of-2 from the line, Kim knocked down a huge three off Lawley’s pass to give the Tritons a 57-56 lead with 7:39 remaining. Husted hit another three less than two minutes later and Lawley scored six of the next nine UCSD points, giving the home squad a 66-60 advantage with 4:28 remaining.
‘No team is going to play harder than us and I feel like that’s what it came down to ‘mdash; getting stops at key times, executing when we needed to,’ Husted said.
After the Gators cut the lead to one, Husted, Kim, Poppen and Lawley knocked down clutch free throws to regain control. Husted scored the final two points of the game at the charity stripe with 16 seconds remaining and then triumphantly threw the ball into the air as the final buzzer sounded and the UCSD fans stormed the court to celebrate.
‘There were times tonight when we weren’t perfect, but we found a way,’ Carlson said. ‘It showed a lot of moxie, to get to the point towards the end of the game and make all our free throws.’ As a team, the Tritons went 26-of-34 from the free-throw line, while also snagging 42 rebounds, compared to 29 for the Otters.
Lawley scored a game-high 22 points with seven rebounds, while Maulhardt was the game leader in both rebounds and assists, 12 boards and a career-high eight assists.
‘When we get that kind of crowd, we can be very, very tough,’ Carlson said. ‘We feed off the energy in the crowd and we’re going to go out there and represent that student body as best we can.’
While the crowd did not reach Spirit Night proportions on Saturday, the Tritons still had an emotional boost on their side, with seven graduating seniors playing perhaps their final home game. Seniors Poppen, Kim, Maulhardt and Brett Stuckey helped UCSD to a quick start, combining for the first 18 Triton points of the game. Lawley scored the next nine, giving UCSD its largest lead of the game, 25-11, with 8:52 left in the first half.
‘We just kept our heads in the game,’ Lawley said. ‘We didn’t have any drop-off from last night and that was one of the biggest things coach Carlson was telling us.’
Cal State Monterey Bay held UCSD scoreless over the next three minutes, climbing back to within five. The Triton seniors responded with Husted, Kim and senior forward Darryl Lawlor connecting on three-pointers, with Poppen scoring four points and Stuckey adding two in the final 5:23 of the half, building a 40-29 lead at the break.
Missed offensive opportunities early in the second half allowed Cal State Monterey Bay to climb within two at the 11:26 mark. However, the bench responded to give the Tritons a slight cushion, with Acevedo hitting two from the line and Lawlor adding another three. Cal State Monterey Bay was slightly off the mark on a few three-point attempts in the final minutes that could have made it a one-possession game, allowing Husted, Kim and Lawley to secure the Triton victory with free throws.
‘ ‘We came in and we knew we had to win them both,’ said Lawley, who scored 11 points with six rebounds and four assists. ‘We brought that intensity to both games.’
Kim, Husted, Poppen and Stuckey each reached double digits in scoring, with Kim notching a game-high 18 and Husted, Poppen and Stuckey all adding 10.
The weekend sweep places UCSD in a tie with Humboldt State for fourth in the CCAA. A top-four finish in conference will allow the Tritons to host a first-round game during the CCAA Tournament.
Readers can contact Joe Tevelowitz at [email protected].