In front of the home crowd at LionTree Arena, UC San Diego men’s basketball (16-4, 6-2 Big West) swept past the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (12-7, 4-4 Big West) in a decisive 77-63 win on Thursday’s Spirit Night matchup.
The Tritons entered the game coming off a close 85-81 defeat to UC Riverside last week, one of only two conference losses UCSD has endured this season. Eager to improve their conference record, the Tritons found their rhythm against the Gauchos. Senior forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones led the home team with 25 points.
UCSD started off slow. Uncharacteristically shaky, the Tritons missed from beyond the arc and in the paint. UCSB scored four off of free throws and drove past the Triton defense to tally up a 7-point lead.
For the first few minutes of the game, the Triton offense relied solely on senior guard Hayden Gray. He contributed the first 6 points for the Tritons before senior guard Tyler McGhie chipped in a layup to begin to close the deficit.
Gray followed up with two back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to bring UCSD up 12-11. He was the Tritons’ second-leading scorer, ending the game with 15 points. Then the rest of UCSD’s offense began to wake up, blazing an 8-0 scoring run. To make matters worse for the Gauchos, Tait-Jones joined the fray and contributed 5 points to the Tritons’ run.
“He’s a little unorthodox, but his change of pace is great,” head coach Eric Olen said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “He’s got a lot of craft and a unique ability to finish from different angles against bigger players.”
UCSD’s quick turnaround prompted panic from the visitor’s side, and the Gauchos called a timeout to regroup. Invigorated by the scoring run, the UCSD pep band played triumphantly. Decked out for UCSD’s 40th annual Spirit Night, students represented their colleges and competed to win the Cheer Cup through pre-game events and turnout at the game. Revelle College came out on top for their third consecutive cup win. The excitement built as UCSD hit its stride.
“When we come out, we’ll be warming up,” Tait-Jones said. “We see the stands packed, and the students are going crazy. That really fired us up.”
Tait-Jones was, in fact, electric. He went 9-12 during the match, shooting 3-for-5 of his 3-point attempts. Tait-Jones triumphantly yelled toward the Gaucho bench after sinking another 3-pointer. He promptly received a technical foul.
“That’s on me,” he said. “I’m a fiery, competitive man. I love to hoop, but I gotta be better for the team. I gotta be more composed in the moment.”
Tait-Jones followed it up with another 3-pointer in the next play, and the Tritons had a solid 30-16 lead.
“It’s a lot of competitive people and competitive environments,” Olen said. “You don’t always react exactly the way you want, but our guys are really good at moving on to the next and not lingering about past actions.”
The first half ended with the scoreboard at 44-31 in UCSD’s favor, but McGhie wasn’t done showing off for the Tritons. He found the basket from well past half court, sending the student section onto its feet. The shot didn’t count towards UCSD’s score, but it was clear that the Tritons were in control.
The second half saw UCSD’s largest lead of the game. With just under seven minutes left, a layup in the paint from graduate student forward Maximo Milovech put the Tritons up 27 with a score of 67-40.
As the match dwindled down to its final minutes, the Gauchos grew desperate. Without the shooting ability to make it from beyond the arc, UCSB relied on its ability to get close to the net. But UCSD held them off easily, and the Gauchos could only close the gap to 12 points.
“We had a big lead,” Tait-Jones said. “We just had to keep our composure. They started to press us late. So, yeah, we just had to stay together as a unit, as a team.”
The Tritons’ scoring slowed in the second half — UCSD put up 33 to UCSB’s 32 — but their fiery first-half performance gave them an edge that the Gauchos couldn’t catch up to. Milovich capped off UCSD’s scoring with two made free throws to claim a 77-63 victory over the Gauchos.
It was UCSD’s second time toppling the Gauchos this season, having achieved an 85-76 victory over UCSB to open conference play. Since this first encounter, UCSD has only fallen to Big West opponents UC Irvine and, most recently, UCR.
“We’ve had some disappointment over the last few weeks, so we just really wanted to bounce back — make a statement,” Tait-Jones said.
UCSD continued to make a statement with a 79-54 victory against Cal State Northridge this Saturday, Jan. 25. They’ll head west to face Hawai’i on Thursday, Jan. 30, before battling UCR at home the following week.
