The UCSD men’s basketball team kept things interesting over the weekend as it split a pair of home games. The Tritons fell to a hot-shooting Sonoma State team on Jan. 28, 64-51, before a large Spirit Night audience. The team’s shooting warmed up on Jan. 29 in a razor-thin 61-58 victory over San Francisco State.

The Tritons (7-10 overall, 3-7 California Collegiate Athletic Association) played a solid first half against San Francisco State (8-9 overall, 5-5 CCAA) as the two teams battled back and forth for most of the first half at RIMAC Arena. The Tritons were able to take a five-point advantage with less than nine minutes remaining in the half, but the Gators came all the way back, taking a six-point lead with less than a minute remaining and going into the half up four.

In the second half, the Tritons were on fire from the field. The team shot an astonishing 81.3 percent (13-of-16) and demonstrated great shot selection, taking only two shots from three-point range and converting on one.

San Francisco State was able to hang right with the Tritons for the half as the six-point first-half lead was the largest by either team in the entire game.

Despite the Gators shooting a depressed 44 percent from the field and a poor 12.5 percent from three-point range, the Tritons were unable to distance themselves from their CCAA opponent.

After San Francisco State’s Mike Dyer converted one of his two free-throw attempts, the two teams were locked up at 54-54 with less than two minutes to play.

The Tritons and Gators each converted two free throws and one basket on their next two possessions as the score was deadlocked at 58-58 with only 38 seconds left on the clock. Sophomore forward Parker Berling proved clutch in the critical moments, rebounding Ryan Cleaves’ missed layup and converting a layup of his own at the other end off freshman guard Andrew Hatch’s assist.

San Francisco State then conjured up memories of Chris Webber in his Michigan Wolverine days by calling a time-out it did not have.

Berling converted one of two technical free throws to give the Tritons their margin of victory when Joe Roberson was unable to convert a desperate three-point attempt.

Roberson nearly recorded a double-double for the game, with game-highs of 22 points and nine rebounds. Cleaves also added 17 points in 35 minutes off the bench, and Dyer contributed nine points, two rebounds and three assists for the Gators.

Triton junior guard Odioh Odiyeh’s 16 points paced UCSD along with 14 points from Berling. Hatch had a solid game with nine points, a team-high five rebounds and a game-high six assists.

The Tritons shot 65.7 percent for the game, compared with a 43.1 percent field-goal shooting performance from the Gators. However, the Tritons were unable to fully exploit their accurate shooting due to struggles with ball control — racking up 26 turnovers — and at the free-throw line, where the Tritons converted 13 of 24 attempts. The fact that the team took only a trio of three-point shots — and made two — was a welcome display of shot selection. In contrast, the Gators needed 14 attempts to convert two three-pointers of their own.

The shot-selection shoe was on the other foot Jan. 28 as the Tritons fell victim to their excess of three-point attempts in their defeat to Sonoma State (10-6 overall, 7-3 CCAA). Playing in front of a raucous 2,511 fans for Spirit Night at RIMAC Arena, the Tritons took too many three-point shots in the second half rather than searching for the better shot inside.

After the lead went back and forth between the two teams for much of the first half, UCSD must have been pleased to enter halftime down by only one following junior forward David Retzlaff’s jumper right before the buzzer. The team shot 45.8 percent from the field, including 14.3 percent from three-point range, in the first half, while the Seawolves went 58.8 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range, making up for their 42.7-percent shooting performance from the charity stripe in the half.

In the second half, Sonoma State’s hot shooting continued as the team shot 70.6 percent from the field compared with the Tritons’ 33.3 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from three-point range. Even with all of their shooting struggles, the Tritons did find a way to narrow the Gators’ 11-point lead midway through the third quarter to just four points with less than five minutes left to play.

The Tritons were unable to make a complete comeback, however, as the Seawolves rallied to close out the game with a 14-5 run, securing their victory.

Seawolves forward Vince Inglima had a near-perfect shooting performance on the evening, going 6-for-6 from the field, including 3-for-3 from long distance, and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line for a game-high 22 points to accompany his game-high seven rebounds. Barry Weiss had 11 points and J.T. Tipton contributed with four rebounds and three assists, while Sonoma State as a team out-rebounded the Tritons, 31-18.

When the Tritons did pound the ball inside, sophomore forward Chris Randall was able to convert, going 5-for-6 and leading the team with 13 points. Hatch added seven points and four assists, while sophomore guard Robby Peters had nine points and three rebounds off the bench.

UCSD now prepares for a slate of weekend road games as it travels to Cal State Los Angeles on Feb. 4 and Cal State Bakersfield on Feb. 5.

Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. starts.