On Sunday, Dec. 28, UC San Diego men’s basketball (11-3, 1-1 Big West) faced off against Stanton (2-8, 0-0 Cal Pac) at LionTree Arena. The Tritons entered as heavy favorites against the Elks, who play in the NAIA, a few rungs below UCSD. However, the Tritons initially struggled to extend their lead, committing nine turnovers in a sloppy performance.
“I thought we were just a little bit out of sync,” head coach Clint Allard said in a postgame interview. “[We were] trying to take the first semi-open shot, versus working to get a great one.”
The game began with Triton possession, and junior guard Aidan Burke scored the team’s first points off of a rebound. The first half was a messy one for the Tritons, who had a mere 33% field-goal percentage and lost their lead twice. The Tritons were ultimately able to build a narrow 35-31 lead going into the break.
“We trust the way we play offensively, that we have talented, unselfish guys,” Allard said. “Over the course of a game, we’re going to get enough points, it’s going to work itself out. We still need to improve with our decision-making and all that, but defensively, we can really make some strides to be the best version of ourselves.”
UCSD played a stronger second half, continuing a season-long trend. As the half progressed, the Tritons were more intentional with their shooting — improving their field-goal percentage to 55%. The Tritons also managed to hang on to the ball longer, keeping their turnover count down to two — an improvement from their seven first-half turnovers. Although Stanton was able to go on a 9-0 run, the Tritons never lost their second-half lead, securing an 85-62 win.
Freshman forward Jaden Vance was the standout player of the game, scoring 16 points — eight of which were in the final five minutes of the game — in a career-high 19 minutes played.
“[Vance has] been working really hard, so it doesn’t surprise me that he had some success today — always can count on him being aggressive,” Allard said. “[He’s a] really talented player that can put the ball in the basket from all three levels.”
With conference play ramping up in the new year, the Tritons will need to work on finding their flow earlier in the game if they want to rekindle their form from earlier this season.
“We have high expectations for conference play,” sophomore guard Alex Chaikin said to The UCSD Guardian. “The competition goes up, and it’s going to be something we’re ready for.”
On Thursday, Jan. 1, the Tritons headed north to San Luis Obispo to resume conference play, ultimately falling 67-65 to Cal Poly — a disappointing start to the regular season for a Triton team aiming to defend their regular-season crown. UCSD is back in action at home on Saturday, Jan. 3, to face conference-leading Hawai’i.
