On Friday, Oct. 24, UC San Diego men’s basketball narrowly beat Cal State San Marcos 74-72 in a preseason exhibition game at LionTree Arena. What was expected to be an easy game for the Tritons against their former Division-II rivals turned out to be a nail-biting contest that UCSD could only win in overtime.
The Tritons begin the 2025-26 campaign with a very different team than the squad that lost to Michigan in March Madness seven months ago. Ten players and four coaches departed in the offseason, including star forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and longtime head coach Eric Olen. Associate head coach Clint Allard was elevated to the head coaching position — his first time at the helm of a college program — and recruited eight transfers to La Jolla.
“This learning curve is going to take us a while,” Allard said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “Everybody is searching for clarity, roles, and definition, and those are things that come over with time.”
The new-look Tritons struggled early on Friday, as rampant turnovers allowed the Cougars to jump out to a 7-0 lead.
“They’re one hell of a team, and they came out on the jump and punched us in the mouth, to say the least,” junior guard Tom Beattie — who finished with a team-high 14 points — said to The Guardian. “With these games, you never know what’s going to happen. I think we just had to come into a timeout and breathe and kind of regroup.”
Although there were glimpses of brilliance on offense, such as redshirt junior forward Leo Beath’s fast-break dunk in the first half, the Tritons struggled to guard the perimeter. The Cougars took full advantage, going 7 for 15 from beyond the arc in the opening half.
“There were times where I thought they were too comfortable,” Allard said. “We did a great job protecting the paint, which is something that we emphasize and try to do, but they were able to make some shots and some of that was a little too much comfort.”
The Tritons took their first lead of the game after an and-one from sophomore guard Alex Chaikin in the last 10 minutes of the match.
“We don’t want to lose, especially at home,” Beattie said. “I think that just sparked us up, and the coaches were on us to keep pushing, keep playing.”
In the final minute, the Cougars still had some tricks up their sleeves. Redshirt senior guard Micah Boone slammed in the rebound after a missed 3-pointer to cut the Triton lead to two. With 10 seconds remaining and a 64-63 lead, Beath stepped out of bounds. Down by one and the ball in their hands, CSUSM had the chance to earn a victory against a Division-I opponent for the first time in program history.
Cougar redshirt sophomore guard Max Tengan drove into the lane and went for the layup, but a foul on Triton sophomore guard Ryder Elisaldez sent Tengan to the line. Tengan was only able to make 1 of 2, tying the game at 64 and sending it to overtime.
The Tritons regained the advantage on the first possession of overtime when Beath scooped up a deflected pass and took it to the basket for an easy 2 points. With two minutes left, defensive miscommunication led to a wide open look for Beattie, who calmly drained a 3-pointer to bring the Tritons up four. The Cougars couldn’t surmount this deficit, and the Tritons went on to eke out an unconvincing 74-72 victory.
“We know as well as anybody that Division-II basketball is really good, so they have an experienced group,” Allard said. “We’re pretty inexperienced and that showed a little bit tonight, but we got a whole week of practice to continue to get better.”
UCSD will return to LionTree Arena for its first competitive game of the season against La Verne on Monday, Nov. 3.
