Joy is typically hard to find near the end of college basketball’s grueling 32-game regular season. However, the 2024-25 Tritons — historic in every sense of the word — are not a typical team.
UC San Diego men’s basketball (26-4, 16-2 Big West) was all smiles on Saturday night, humiliating Cal State Fullerton (6-24, 1-17 Big West) in a 100-55 drubbing. Senior forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones led the Tritons with 21 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals in a mere 18 minutes on the court. Saturday’s ho-hum 45-point win — an 11th consecutive victory — means that UCSD is only one game away from clinching at least a share of the Big West regular season title for the first time in program history.
The Triton onslaught began early in the first half. After trading turnovers with the Titans in the opening two minutes, UCSD raced out to a 12-0 start. A pair of 3-pointers by senior guards Hayden Gray and Tyler McGhie stunned a dubious Fullerton defense, and Gray’s 100th steal of the season led to a wide-open Tait-Jones alley-oop slam on the other end.
Fullerton briefly stemmed the bleeding with an 8-2 run, cutting the Triton lead to 14-8 with 12:48 left in the frame. But the Titans could not keep pace with the UCSD’s 3-point prowess: six Tritons — Tait-Jones, Gray, McGhie, junior forward Nordin Kapic, junior guard Chris Howell, and redshirt junior guard Justin Rochelin — converted from deep en route to a 49-17 first-half advantage.
UCSD was equally impressive on the defensive end, forcing Fullerton to shoot 7-26 from the field and 2-10 from beyond the arc. The floundering Titans’ 12 first-half giveaways, including six Triton steals, led to 22 UCSD points off turnovers. The turnover margin ultimately ended 20-4 in favor of the Tritons, which increased their season total to +7.5 and extended their lead in the statistic among all Division-I teams.
Explosive offense and stifling defense combined for a record-breaking first half; the Tritons’ 32-point lead after 20 minutes was the team’s largest halftime advantage in conference play as a member of the Big West.
Tait-Jones and company continued their dominance after the break. The New Zealand native scored or assisted on the first nine Triton points of the period, extending UCSD’s lead to 40. Tait-Jones, a favorite to win the Big West’s player of the season award, saw his final action of the game with 16:26 remaining and his team leading 61-19. Fellow starters Gray, Howell, McGhie, and Kapic joined the Tritons’ star on the bench minutes later, each relishing the opportunity to play cheerleader in the waning minutes of a blowout.
The Triton backups took advantage of their fleeting moment in the spotlight. 6-foot-10-inch redshirt sophomore forward Cade Pendleton showed off his unicorn-esque shooting in the closing minutes, draining two long-range 3-pointers. In a glimpse of what is to come for UCSD, redshirt freshman guard Jasen Brooks and freshman guard Ryder Elisaldez each netted their Big West season-high, scoring 8 and 5 points, respectively.
A late contested layup by sophomore Aiden Burke meant all 11 Tritons who appeared in Saturday night’s game scored — a testament to the Tritons’ offensive depth. Despite seeing limited minutes for most of the season, UCSD’s bench mob extended their team’s lead to 45. As the final buzzer sounded and LionTree Arena gave their Tritons a standing ovation for the penultimate time, the scoreboard flashed: UCSD 100, CSUF 55.
Off the heels of the Tritons’ first-ever votes in the AP Poll last week, UCSD continues to break records. The team’s 100 points scored in regulation on Saturday night are the most ever against a conference opponent in the Big West era. The 45-point margin of victory is also the men’s basketball program’s largest win against a Division-I opponent. As of March 2, the Tritons are No. 35 in the KenPom rankings and No. 34 in the NET rankings, ahead of North Carolina, San Diego State, and back-to-back national champions UConn.
UCSD will look to clinch at least a share of the regular season Big West title with a win at home against Long Beach State on Thursday, March 6. If UCSD and UC Irvine both win on Thursday, the Tritons would win the Big West outright with a road victory over UC Davis on Saturday, March 8. The clash against the Aggies, currently the No. 6 team in the conference, will be UCSD’s second nationally televised game of the season.
Having already secured a double bye in the Big West Championship, the Tritons will play their first Division-I postseason game in program history on Friday, March 14. A victory in the semifinal may be enough to earn an at-large bid into March Madness, but UCSD will look to confirm its place in college basketball’s marquee tournament with a win in the championship game. Immortality — and a shot to try on Cinderella’s glass slipper — beckons from Henderson, Nevada.
