CARSON, Calif. - The 11th-ranked UC San Diego men's basketball team made a season-high 53.8 percent of its shots en route to a 73-60 conference victory at Cal State Dominguez Hills Thursday evening.
The win brought UCSD to 8-1 overall and 3-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). CSUDH dropped to 6-4 and 0-2.
"Any time you go on the road and get a win, that's a pretty good trip," said UC San Diego head coach Eric Olen. "I think we did a lot of good things tonight and we also have some things to work on, but we are certainly excited to have some success on the road."
For the game, the Tritons made good on 28 of their 52 shots. The Toros made 22 of 53, 41.5 percent. UC San Diego has now shot 50 percent or better in eight of its nine contests this season.
"We did a good job shooting," said Olen. "They (CSUDH) started extending their pressure and picking up the ball pretty far out on the floor, but we did a nice job of being aggressive against that. We felt like we could get to the basket when they pressured us and we ended up shooting a high percentage because we were able to get to the rim."
Individually, Drew Dyer finished with 13 points and was 5-for-8 shooting for UCSD. Grant Jackson and Aleks Lipovic each scored 12 points. Jackson was 5-for-8 from the field while also contributing six rebounds, two assists and a steal.
The Toros led by as many as six in the first half. However, a Zach McMillan layup at the 10:23 mark put the Tritons up 23-22 and they held an advantage the rest of the way. They finished the half up 39-31 after shooting 55 percent (16-29). Lipovic made all four of his three-point attempts, accounting for all 12 of his points in the opening frame.
UC San Diego pushed its lead to 13 points several times in the second half, the first coming at 14:45 when a layup by Chris Hansen made it 48-35. Cal State Dominguez Hills climbed back into it and was down by just six when Darius Butler made a jumper to bring the score to 62-56 with 5:42 remaining in the game. The Tritons answered with five straight points to virtually seal the win.
For the Toros, Ivan Dooley had a game-high 14 points. Butler was just behind with 13 and Justin Sadler recorded a double-double with 11 points and a game-best 10 boards.
The Tritons have now won six consecutive games against CSUDH.
UC San Diego hosts new CCAA member Cal State San Marcos (4-4, 2-1) on Dec. 20 at 3 p.m.
"San Marcos is a really good team and will certainly test us defensively," said Olen. "Some of the things we saw tonight in terms of isolation, individual dribble-drive, testing your defense individually and trying to guard without fouling are things we can certainly improve on. Hopefully tonight's game will prepare us for a really good challenge coming up."
Sunday's game will be the first-ever meeting between the two San Diego County teams.
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