In a game that came down to the final possession, UC San Diego women’s basketball (13-6, 8-1 Big West) secured a pivotal 68-66 victory against rival UC Irvine (17-3, 8-1 Big West) at the Bren Events Center on Saturday, Jan. 25. The win — which ended the Anteaters’ 16-game win streak — lifts the Tritons to the top of the Big West standings, tied with UCI.

“I’m insanely proud [of the win],” junior center Erin Condron — who dominated the paint en route to 19 points — said to The UCSD Guardian in a postgame interview. “We work toward these big wins, and Irvine is an insanely good team. They’ve been on a 16-game win streak, and they haven’t lost at home all season. To have this kind of win means a lot.”

UCI took the lead early on, but a 13-0 second-quarter Triton run — capped by 3-pointers from senior guard Makayla Rose and redshirt junior guard Rosa Smith — turned the tide. The Tritons went into halftime with a 32-29 lead, much to the delight of the hundreds of UCSD fans who had made the hour-and-a-half trip from La Jolla.

“Shoutout to the students,” head coach Heidi VanDerveer said to The Guardian. “We have tremendous support from our hardcore [fans], our families, our fans that show up, and Billy. We feed off of that, and we’d like to see them at home too — get them into LionTree.”

The Tritons held a slim lead for much of the third quarter, but a controversial travel call with seconds left in the quarter swung momentum in their favor. On the ensuing possession, senior guard Sabrina Ma sank a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. Ma began the fourth quarter the same way she ended the third — draining a corner triple to go up by 10. Although these would be Ma’s only threes of the game, the Tritons shot well from deep as a whole, converting over 40% of their attempts.

“We usually just take what the defense gives us,” VanDerveer said. “We like to get out in transition. Rose hit some big threes; Sab hit some big threes. I thought we were very unselfish and doing our job to make each other look good.”

A late 6-0 Anteater run cut the Triton lead down to 1 point with two minutes left. Chaos ensued as the two teams combined for five turnovers in 90 seconds.

“It’s really important in minutes like that — where it’s a close game — to stay calm,” Condron said. “Mistakes are going to be made, but just stick with it and stick with what you know.”

With UCI down by two, the final possession ended up in the hands of an Anteater guard, who failed to convert a wide-open 3-pointer as time expired. This victory marked UCSD’s first Quad 2 win of the season and was the cherry on top of an impressive start to conference play. The Tritons are now tied with UCI for first in the Big West, and have won 10 of their last 12 games.

UCSD will look to remain atop the Big West standings against UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, Jan. 29.