LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The fourth-seeded UC San Diego men's basketball team shot better than 50% from the field for the second game in row to defeat No. 5 seed Humboldt State, 79-67 in the opening round of the CCAA Championship Tournament Tuesday night at RIMAC Arena.
Alan Husted led four Tritons in double figures with a game-high 18 points, while
Shane Poppen scored 16 and hauled in 12 rebounds in the win.
UCSD improves to 17-10 overall and advances to the CCAA Tournament Semifinals Friday night at Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena. The Tritons will face the host Coyotes, who defeated sixth-seeded Sonoma State 79-77 in the first round on Tuesday.
Humboldt State's season likely comes to an end at 20-11 overall. The Lumberjacks still have an outside shot at an at-large bid in the NCAA Division II West Regional and will await the announcement of the NCAA Tournament field Sunday evening.
“We knew it was going to be a fight tonight,” head coach
Chris Carlson said. “They played us extremely tough here earlier this season and our game at their place went right down to the wire. Fortunately, we had some guys hit some key shots and we were solid on the defense end, so we'll take it. “
Husted hit 4-of-8 shots from the field, including 3-of-7 from the three-point line, and finished with four assists and two steals. Poppen, who notched his seventh double-double and third in the last five games, was 5-of-8 from the floor and 6-of-7 from the free throw line.
Jordan Lawley also scored 16 for the Tritons, connecting on 4-of-7 shots, while
Kelvin Kim finished with 15 points, a game-high five assists, and four rebounds.
After Zac Tiedeman hit two free throws to give the Lumberjacks a 29-28 lead with 5:32 left in the first half, Poppen converted a three-point play and Kim sank a triple to put UCSD in front by five with less than three minutes remaining. Five straight free throws from Husted and Kim pushed the lead to 39-29 at intermission.
Kim opened the second half with another three and Lawley followed with two at the line to give the Tritons a 15-point cushion with less than two minutes gone in the period.
Kevin Atkin's jumper cut the deficit to eight, 51-43 with 12:33 remaining, but UCSD responded with a 15-6 run over the next six minutes to take a commanding 66-49 advantage with six and a half minutes to play.
Humboldt made one final push, closing to within eight on a pair of free throws from Tiedeman with 55 seconds remaining, but UCSD sank four free throws in the final minute to ice the victory.
After shooting a season-best 56% in the win at Cal State Stanislaus on Friday, UCSD hit 23-of-45 shots against the Lumberjacks, 51%. The Tritons were also better than 50% from behind the arc, knocking down 9-of-17 attempts.
Humboldt State shot 36% for the game, hitting 20-of-f 56 attempts from the floor.
Atkins scored 12 points to lead the way for the Lumberjacks, while Mike Kehrig scored 11 off the bench and Jameson Figgatt added 10.
UCSD grabbed an early 12-7 lead on a three-pointer from
Tyler Acevedo at the 13:57 mark, before the Lumberjacks answered with a 9-2 run over the next four minutes to take their biggest lead of the game, 20-16.
