The Tritons are back in the Big Dance. No. 2 seed UC San Diego women’s basketball (24-8, 17-3 Big West) won its second consecutive Big West title on Saturday, besting No. 4 seed Hawai’i (22-11, 14-6 Big West) 60-48. This victory marks the third time this season the Tritons have faced — and overcome — the Rainbow Wahine. 

“The joy of watching young women set a goal and achieve it is, it’s just phenomenal,” head coach Heidi VanDerveer said in a postgame press conference. “It makes me so happy. I’d say proud, but it’s happy. It’s happy for them because this is something they can carry with them, the lessons they learn, but also the feeling for the rest of their lives.”

For senior guard Makayla Rose, who won MVP of the tournament, the team’s tenacity and synergy made the title possible.

“It’s about proving us right,” Rose said in a postgame press conference. “And, you know, it’s about silencing all the noise and just focusing on us. And, like Heidi said, it just shows that we can do hard things, and I think that lesson is very important … moving forward, in the future, outside of basketball. And, you know, I would just say, doing it with this program, like this specific program with these people, and all the adversity we’ve had over the course of the year … it means a lot, and, you know, I’m just so grateful that this tournament came out how it did.”

UCSD shook off the rust of a double-bye on Saturday afternoon, downing No. 3 UC Davis to earn a spot in the Big West Championship game. Hawai’i’s path to the final wasn’t as easy — it had to take on Cal State Fullerton in the quarterfinals and UC Irvine on Friday afternoon to keep its run alive until Saturday. Going into the final, the Rainbow Wahine had claimed 16 victories in their last 17 games. Their only loss in that stretch came against the Tritons. 

In the first quarter, Hawai’i had the momentum to keep the hot streak alive. Rose scored the first 4 points of the game, but the Rainbow Wahine then went on a 6-0 scoring run to take the lead. 

Freshman guard Lev Feiman broke Hawai’i’s streak with a handy block under the net. Junior center Erin Condron picked up the rebound, which Feiman converted into a midrange jumper to tie it 6-6 with just under two minutes left in the first quarter. 

The Tritons came close to closing the gap midway through the second quarter when redshirt junior guard Rosa Smith sank a left-corner triple to cut Hawai’i’s lead to one. But the Rainbow Wahine charged ahead, building a 26-16 advantage with three minutes left in the frame to push VanDerveer to call a timeout. Hawai’i forced a Triton turnover on the next play and maintained the momentum to go into halftime with a 28-20 advantage.

“We went into halftime, and we were like, ‘Where is our team?’” VanDerveer said. “We were kind of imposters in the first half, and I think sometimes when you want something so much … it’s just out of sorts. I think that when we had those 15 minutes at halftime to regroup, we came out with a mission, and we wanted to leave it all on the floor for the 20 minutes that we had remaining.”

The Tritons turned the tide in the second half. Anchored by Condron, who scored 16 of her 22 points in the second half, UCSD attacked the paint, and the shots began to fall. The Tritons made half of their 34 second-half field-goal attempts. On the defensive end, an aggressive UCSD press forced 11 Hawai’i turnovers and held the Rainbow Wahine to 20 points in the half. An early 11-0 run in the third quarter brought the Tritons even with Hawai’i at 32 points apiece. A pair of Condron free throws to end the period gave the Tritons their first lead since the first quarter.

On the other end of the court, the Rainbow Wahine looked desperate as they struggled to revive their first-half dominance, but the Tritons were determined to run away with the game. The memory of walking off this court last year, title in hand, loomed large. 

“Last year, in our first experience in the tournament, we might have snuck up on some people,” VanDerveer said. “This year, there was no sneaking up. I mean, we knew we were good from the beginning, and I think we went through a tough league. We had a couple of hiccups, but I think we have great character on our team and competitiveness.”

With a minute left in the half, UCSD’s lead had ballooned to 10. The Tritons were closing in on the title. Senior guard Sabrina Ma chipped in a layup to put the finishing touch on the Tritons’ title run. 

Ma, the only starter from last year’s championship squad, seemed saturated with joy. As the final seconds of the title game wound down, Ma extended her arm out to junior guard Dymonique Maxie, still dribbling, to embrace her. They both knew the title was theirs — UCSD went back-to-back with the 60-48 victory.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” VanDerveer said. “The resiliency, the character, the grit, the determination — you can use all those words — just to really put together a second half like no other.”

With the Big West Championship title in hand, UCSD is set to make a return appearance in the NCAA tournament. Last season, the Tritons were drawn as a No. 16 seed and lost to Southern in the First Four. This year, the Tritons were drawn as a No. 14 seed. They will face TCU on Friday, March 20, in Fort Worth, Texas. 

“We had the goal of winning the Big West Championship,” Rose said. “All year, we just thought: March. March was in the back of our minds, every game, every practice, every lifting, every session that we had together.”

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Photo by Shefali Saxena