When UC San Diego men’s basketball (19-9, 9-7 Big West) fell to UC Irvine (18-10, 11-5 Big West) in LionTree Arena on Jan. 24, freshman guard Hudson Mayes watched from the bench as the Tritons failed to make a single field goal in the final four minutes of play. In Saturday’s rematch between the two rivals, Mayes emerged as the hero — scoring UCSD’s two final field goals to give the Tritons a decisive 71-69 victory.
Last week’s win at the Bren Events Center marks the beginning of a third act for UCSD. The first act featured an electrifying offense that was alight from deep, catapulting the Tritons to a 10-1 start. The second act saw the team fizzle, dropping five of eight games and prompting head coach Clint Allard to begin experimenting with different rotations and strategies. Now with its third straight win, UCSD has entered a new phase of its season — starring an aggressive defense and a hungry Triton team ready to show the Big West what it’s capable of.
The Tritons came out of the gates strong on Saturday, building a double-digit lead within 10 minutes. Instead of relying on one or two shooters, the Tritons passed the ball around, leaving the Anteaters unsure of who to guard. The strategy, coupled with a bold Triton defense, worked to throw off the Anteaters to begin the match.
“It’s complementary basketball,” Allard said to The UCSD Guardian in a postgame interview. “In that stretch, we’re really getting stops. We weren’t taking out the basket; we were running, and then, when we score, we get to set our defense. That allows you to create a little separation. That’s what we did well in that stretch.”
The Tritons were up by 17 in the final five minutes of the first half, but the Anteaters — desperate to catch up — went on a 10-0 run. However, sophomore guard Alex Chaikin put an end to the run by scoring 4 points of his own, keeping the Tritons ahead by 11.
UCSD remained in the lead for most of the second half, but a late 8-0 Anteater run — capped off by a three to take a 66-65 lead — put the Tritons on the back foot with two minutes remaining. Mayes took charge on the next possession, attacking the rim and banking it in over a much taller Anteater defender to regain the lead. With 15 seconds left, Mayes went to work again, lunging at the rim and rolling it in with a smooth finish to give the Tritons a 3-point lead.
“To be completely honest, I didn’t know [there] was that that much time left on the clock until the final bucket,” Mayes — who finished with a team-high 17 points — said to The Guardian. “I was just playing my game. I love the pressure at the end of the game, so doing that wasn’t anything new to me.”
The Anteaters airballed a corner triple on the following possession, and redshirt junior forward Leo Beath closed out the game with a pair of free throws to punctuate the 71-69 victory.
Approximately 100 UCSD students who made the trip up to the Bren in the second iteration of KSDT Sports’ Operation Invade Irvine cheered the Tritons on. Despite lower attendance than the previous year, the Triton fans were audible all night.
“We have such great fan support; this has been a cool couple-year tradition — hopefully it’ll continue,” Allard said. “Fans coming up and supporting us at this Irvine game turned into a little bit of rivalry. These are the atmospheres you want in college basketball — two really good programs in a great atmosphere and a competitive game.”
UCSD’s rivalry victory clinched the team’s spot in the Big West tournament. Despite their struggles throughout conference play, the Tritons sit only two games behind the first-place trio of UCI, Hawai’i, and Cal State Northridge in the Big West standings. UCSD will aim to leverage its recent momentum to surge up the standings and secure byes awarded to the top four teams in the conference.
“This is when we need to start playing our best basketball,” Mayes said. “We just really hunkered down and locked in on playing our brand of basketball, doing all the right things, and being as tough and competitive as we can. It’s the end of the regular season. This is where teams make or break.”
With four games remaining in the regular season, the Tritons look to continue their streak against a struggling Cal State Bakersfield team at home on Thursday, Feb. 26.
