LA JOLLA, Calif. ? Playing at home for the first time this season, the UC San Diego men's basketball team outscored Humboldt State 51-34 in the second half and went on to post an 80-67 victory in its CCAA opener in front of 1,886 Friday night at RIMAC Arena. Seniors
Darryl Lawlor and
Shane Poppen scored 15 points apiece to lead five Tritons in double figures in the victory.
UCSD improves to 2-3 overall, 1-0 in CCAA play with the win, while Humboldt State falls to 7-3, 1-1.
“We beat an excellent team tonight,” head coach
Chris Carlson said. “We had a great crowd here and we were really able to feed off that. I thought we struggled a little bit in the beginning, but the guys kept fighting and we were able to put together a pretty good second half.”
Trailing 33-29 at the break, the Tritons shot a blistering 67% (14-21) after halftime, while clamping down defensively and limiting the Lumberjacks to just 26% shooting.
Lawlor and Poppen each finished 5-of-7 from the floor and combined to snare 14 of UCSD's 41 rebounds. Both players registered season-highs.
A.J. Maulhardt turned in one of his better performances as a Triton, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go with seven boards, while
Alan Husted chipped in with 11 points and
Jordan Lawley added 10.
After taking its first lead of the game at 38-37 with 17 minutes remaining, UCSD used a 17-3 run to build a 61-46 advantage with 8:13 left to play. Humboldt State closed to within nine after six straight points from Zac Tiedeman, but two free-throws apiece from
Kelvin Kim and Maulhardt pushed the lead back to 13, 65-52 with 4:19 on the clock.
The Lumberjacks trimmed the deficit down to nine once more, before nine straight free-throws gave the Tritons their biggest lead, 79-82 with 1:19 remaining.
UCSD shot 52% for the game, finishing above 50% for the third time in five games this season, and finished 22-of-28 at the free-throw line, 79%. Humboldt State shot 33% (19-57) overall and hit 20-of-25 shots at the line, 80%.
The Tritons held a decisive 41-27 edge on the glass.
Tiedeman scored 22 points to lead the Lumberjacks, while David Howard finished with 14 and Will Petty put in 13.
UCSD will look to make it 2-for-2 in conference play when Sonoma State pays a visit to RIMAC on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
