SAN DIEGO, Calif. ? The UC San Diego men's basketball team began its 2007-08 season with a hard fought 76-60 loss to Division I San Diego State on Saturday evening in Cox Arena on the SDSU campus. The Aztecs, who are receiving votes in the Division I Top-25 poll, improve to 4-0 on the year while the Tritons fall to 0-1.
First year head coach Chris Carlson's squad came out ready to play, taking an early lead and holding a 21-20 advantage with just over six minutes to play in the first half before the Aztecs went on a 16-6 run to end the first half with a 36-27 lead.
A quick 6-0 run over the first three minutes of the second half for the Tritons would pull them within three, but SDSU would respond with a 7-0 run of its own to go back ahead by double digits. UCSD would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way as every time the Tritons seemed poised to make a run, the Aztecs would respond with a rally killing 3-pointer or momentum turning dunk.
San Diego State's 6-foot-8 freshman forward Billy White would lead all scorers on the night with his 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting from the floor. He would also pull down a team-high nine rebounds in the win while teammates Kelvin Davis and Kyle Spain added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Junior Henry Patterson led the Tritons with his 16 points and nine boards. Jordan Lawley added 13 points in 26 minutes of play off the bench while Clint Allard chipped in with nine points and four assists.
"I am very happy with our efforts tonight,” said Carlson. “We played well and for half the game we out-rebounded a very good team. Obviously, San Diego State is a well coached team and you know every time that you play San Diego State it will be a competitive game. I really believe that Coach Fisher and his team are an NCAA tournament team.
“I thought that we competed well for 40 minutes. If we could have taken care of the ball a bit more and not allowed them second and third shots maybe we could have tightened up the score. I am just really proud of the way we competed tonight."
The Tritons committed 14 turnovers in the contest, eight more than the Aztecs. The biggest difference in the game came in the paint where SDSU out-scored UCSD by a 50-24 margin.
Coach Carlson and his squad will now turn their attention to NCAA Division II opponents for the rest of the '07-08 campaign, beginning with Grand Canyon University next Saturday evening in Phoenix, Ariz. The Tritons and Antelopes will tip things off at 7 p.m. inside Antelope Gymnasium on the GCU campus.
