LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego men's basketball team rallied from a double-digit first half deficit for a 55-52 victory over visiting Cal Poly Pomona in front of a season-high 1,209 fans on Friday evening in RIMAC Arena. With the win the Tritons improve to 8-4 overall and 5-2 in California Collegiate Athletic Association play while dropping the Broncos to 6-7 overall and 5-3 in conference action.
After scoring the game's first two points, the Tritons were out-scored by a 19-5 margin over the first 12 minutes of the game and found themselves in a 12-point hole, 19-7 with 8:02 to go in the first half. UCSD would make three 3-pointers to during a 20-4 spurt and would go into the intermission with a 27-23 advantage.
The two teams would exchange buckets through the first 11 minutes of the second stanza until Alan Husted hit back-to-back 3-point shots within 40 seconds of one another to give the Tritons a 45-41 lead that would not be relinquished over the final 7:56 of regulation.
Junior Kelvin Kim led a balanced Tritons' offensive attack with his 12 points. Husted finished with 11 points while Shane Poppen added eight points and eight rebounds. Henry Patterson also finished with eight points, the last two of which came on an uncontested layup with 20 seconds to go that sealed the UCSD victory.
Larry Gordon scored a game-high 19 points in the loss for the Broncos, connecting on six of 10 shots from the floor while also making all five of his free throw attempts. Booker and Kaelen Daniels chipped in with nine points apiece while Gordon yanked down a team-best eight boards.
As a team the Tritons shot 46.7% from the floor, making 21 of 45 shots on the night. The Broncos made 20 of 44 and out-rebounded UCSD by a 31-22 margin.
First year head coach Chris Carlson will lead his squad back into action on Saturday against 5th-ranked Cal State San Bernardino, who lost to Cal Poly Pomona by a 65-62 margin in overtime earlier this week. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. in RIMAC Arena.
