Tritons lost to Sonoma State and San Francisco State, falling to 3-7 in the CCAA
The UCSD men’s basketball team was unsuccessful in its Northern California road trip, losing two games back to back. The Tritons lost 79–64 to Sonoma State and 82–68 to San Francisco State. UCSD returns to La Jolla with a 3–7 record in California Collegiate Athletic Association play.
Friday night’s troubling loss to Sonoma was due in part to UCSD’s poor shooting performance. The Tritons shot a dismal 34 percent from the field and an ice-cold 12.5 percent from the three-point line, only hitting three of their 24 attempts from behind the arc. Conversely, Sonoma State was on fire from long range, draining 62 percent of its three pointers.
As the top-ranked rebounding team in the conference, the Tritons performed uncharacteristically on the glass, where they were out rebounded 31–18. The Seawolves took advantage of the rebounds by scoring 17 second-chance points, a stark contrast to the Tritons’ meager four second-chance points.
“We obviously didn’t play our best basketball tonight,” UCSD head coach Eric Olen said to the UCSD Athletics Department. “Sonoma State deserves a lot of credit for the way they played, but we didn’t do the little things in order to be successful tonight.”
UCSD’s offense struggled all night — only one player, senior point guard James McCann scored in double digits and also led the Tritons in points, rebounds and assists. McCann went 7-for-15 for the night, finishing with a game high 17 points. The Carlsbad native also grabbed six boards and dished out two assists in the losing effort. Freshman guard Adam Klie was the second highest scorer for UCSD, finishing with eight points.
Sonoma State had an offensively balanced game; junior Mike Harris scored 15 points, Justin Herold scored 13 points and James Davis scored 12 points.
With the win over UCSD, Sonoma State was finally able to nab its first conference win of the season, improving to 1–8, good for last place in the CCAA standings.
The following night, the Tritons lost 82–68 to San Francisco State. The Tritons shot better than they did on Friday, shooting 40 percent from the field and netting 12 from downtown. Offensively, McCann had more help, as UCSD had five players that scored in double digits. Sophomore forward Drew Dyer led the way with a team-high 15 points, adding five rebounds and three assists. McCann added 14 points, six rebounds and eight assists
Although the Tritons shot the ball well, they could not stop CCAA leading scorer Nefi Perdomo. The 6-foot-1-inch senior guard — averaging 22 points on the season — scored 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and also made five three-pointers to lift the Gators.
Down by as many as 16 points, the Tritons were able to cut the lead to three with a McCann three-pointer with seven minutes left in the game. However, frivolous turnovers and fouls on defense led to easy buckets for the Gators, while the Triton’s came up empty on offense.
UCSD looks to end its two-game losing streak with the help of a home court crowd on Friday, Jan. 24, as they face Cal State Dominguez Hills (2–8).
