LA JOLLA, Calif. ? Playing at home for the first time this season the UC San Diego men's basketball team registered an impressive 94-91 overtime victory against Grand Canyon University on Tuesday evening in RIMAC Arena. With the win the Tritons improve to 3-7 on the season while the Antelopes fall to 11-3.
Sophomore Clint Allard led the way for UCSD with his career-high 28 points, nine assists and four rebounds. Freshmen Henry Patterson and Darryl Lawlor added 17 and 15, respectively, while junior Robby Peters rounded out the Triton players in double figure scoring with his 12 points. Junior transfer Justin Sinnott had a big game for UCSD, scoring six points and pulling down a game-high 11 boards.
Both teams came out shooting well in the first half leading to a 43-43 score at intermission. GCU shot 64.0% from the floor in the first stanza, including 5-for-10 from long range, while the Tritons made 6-for-11 from beyond the arc en route to shooting 45.5%.
GCU continued its hot shooting in the early moments of the second half, going on a 12-1 run over the first three and a half minutes of the second stanza. From that point on UCSD clawed its way back into the game going on a 17-5 run of its own to take a 76-74 lead with exactly five minutes to play. Sophomore Andrew Hatch had an opportunity to win the game for the Tritons in regulation but his shot hit the back rim as time expired.
In overtime, Rich Davis'3-pointer for Grand Canyon tied the score at 85-85 with 1:55 to go. UCSD then got a free throw from Hatch, a layup from Patterson and a deep ball from Lawlor to take a 6-point advantage with only 40 seconds remaining on the clock. Davis came down and sunk another 3-pointer to pull the ?Lopes within three but Allard extended the Tritons' lead to five with a pair of free throws. After two GCU misses from downtown and four UCSD free throw misses over the next 30 seconds, Grand Canyon pulled to within two on Davis' fourth trifecta. Allard then made one free throw to put UCSD up by three with 0.8 seconds to go before Jason Stromvall's heave from 80 feet came up short to give the Tritons the narrow victory.
Davis ended the game for Canyon with 22 points and seven rebounds while Noe Alonzo had 28 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Ryan Nelson added 11 points and nine assists while Stromvall chipped in with 10.
The win for UCSD avenges a 72-60 early season loss to GCU in Phoenix on November 25. The Tritons are now 5-9 all-time against the Antelopes.
UCSD returns to California Collegiate Athletic Association play on Friday with a 7:30 p.m. game against Cal State Stanislaus. The Tritons will also play Chico State on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. as well.
