In a tight game against conference rival UC Irvine (23-4, 14-2 Big West), UC San Diego women’s basketball (18-8, 13-3 Big West) collapsed in the second half, giving the Anteaters a 70-68 win in a crucial match for the Big West regular season title race. On Jan. 24, UCSD bested UCI by just 2 points — this time, the Anteaters got their revenge, beating the Tritons by the exact same margin.
UCSD and UCI were level at 13-2 in conference entering the game — with UCI’s win putting them in first place. The Tritons, now in third, will have to play catch-up in the final four games of the season to have a shot at retaking the top spot in the Big West.
The Tritons came out of the gate with an early 4-0 lead, but halfway through the first quarter, UCI built a 4-point advantage of its own. The last minute of the quarter saw the momentum shift dramatically, with the Tritons converting their fastbreak opportunities. Leading by 1 point going into the final minute of the quarter, the Tritons tacked on six more points from three different scorers in transition to go into the second quarter leading 24-17.
Halfway through the second quarter, the Tritons extended their lead to 13 off a 3-pointer from senior guard Sabrina Ma. It was the Tritons’ largest lead of the game, but UCI was able to bring itself back to within 6 points by the end of the half.
Senior guard Makayla Rose brought the Tritons’ lead to 10 points with two free throws midway through the third quarter, but UCI went on a 9-0 run to close out the quarter with the Tritons leading 55-54. As UCI inched closer to leveling the game, turnovers and missed shots plagued the Tritons. UCI’s impressive defense held the Tritons scoreless for the last five minutes of the quarter to allow the Anteaters to get back into the game offensively. The Anteaters got into the paint effectively, getting themselves to the line and putting in some crucial layups.
After having built up a comfortable 13-point advantage in the first half, the Tritons entered the fourth quarter defending a 1-point lead. With about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, junior center Erin Condron collected her 10th rebound to achieve her ninth double-double of the season. Despite two clutch layups from Condron in the dying minutes of the game, UCI pulled away, building a 5-point lead with just 10 seconds remaining. A desperate 3-pointer from freshman guard Lev Feiman cut UCI’s lead to two in the closing seconds. However, on UCI’s final possession of the game, the Tritons couldn’t commit a foul to get the ball back, and the game ended 70-68.
Free throws made the difference in the matchup. UCI was able to get to the line for 35 free throws, compared to UCSD’s 14 free-throw attempts — evidence of the physicality of UCSD’s defense.
“We are an extremely aggressive and defensive team,” head coach Heidi VanDerveer said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “I think we competed, and it’s just another opportunity to grow and learn. We’ll hopefully learn from it, and we’ll be ready to respond next week.”
With the loss, UCSD dropped to third in the Big West standings with just four games remaining. The Tritons will look to get back on top of the Big West for the championship in March, starting on the road against Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday.
