The UCSD men’s basketball team’s road woes continued over the weekend as the Tritons lost games to San Francisco State, 75-69, and to Sonoma State, 59-72.
Guardian file
After beating San Francisco State at home six days earlier, UCSD traveled to play the Gators in San Francisco on Feb. 6 and was unable to win back-to-back games. Once again, the Tritons fell behind big early in the contest and trailed 22-8 before the ten-minute mark of the first half, and once again UCSD battled back and closed the gap to only eight at the half, 37-29.
UCSD came out of halftime with a different face. Sophomore guard Matthew Sweany hit a pair of three-pointers and the Tritons took a 53-51 lead. But this was the last time the Tritons would see the lead since it quickly slipped away from them with an 8-0 run by the Gators over the next two minutes. Trailing 59-53, the Tritons never recovered.
UCSD was led by Sweany’s 16-point effort, which included 4-for-5 from three-point range, and junior center Jesse Boyd’s 15 points and five rebounds. Redshirt freshman Parker Berling provided 13 points off the bench, hitting all nine of his free throws. Berling also had six rebounds and three assists. Junior Brandon Francis chipped in with 10 points.
For San Francisco State, senior center Chris Tabarez had a monster game with 21 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Three other Gators scored in double digits. Mychal Lynch scored 17 points, DeAndre Walker scored 16 points and Ryan Cleaves scored 12 points.
Cleaves also contributed a game-high eight assists and five boards in the victory.
UCSD then traveled north to Rohnert Park to take on the surging Sonoma State Seawolves, and the Seawolves proved to be too much for the Tritons. The Tritons kept it close in the first half and only trailed by four at halftime.
Sonoma State used a 20-11 run out of the half to push a four-point lead to 13. Despite there being three Tritons in double-figures, UCSD could not get within eight points the rest of the way.
The Seawolves held a 40-31 advantage on the boards and out-shot UCSD, 46 percent to 37 percent.
UCSD was led by Boyd’s 15 points, while Sweany had 14 points and sophomore guard Zach Zanolli added 13 points.
The loss for the Tritons drops them to 5-14 overall and 5-9 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
