LA JOLLA, Calif. – For the fourth straight season, the UC San Diego men's basketball program has won a CCAA tournament championship. This time, the top seed and fourth-ranked Tritons topped second seed Cal Poly Pomona, 76-62, inside RIMAC Arena on Saturday night.
Redshirt sophomore guard and CCAA Most Valuable Player Tyrell Roberts scored 14 and was named tournament MVP. Coming off a tournament record 45-point effort in Friday's semifinal, Roberts was held scoreless in the first half Saturday by the Broncos defense while battling foul trouble. That quickly changed in the second half as Roberts buried three triples in the first 2:45 of the second half as the Tritons built their biggest lead of the night to that point, 45-33, with 17:16 left.
UC San Diego (30-1) extended its win streak to 22 straight games. The Broncos (23-7) are expected to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II tournament.
The first half was a tightly contested affair with two ties and five lead changes. The Broncos tough defense – their calling card – was on display as UC San Diego hit just four of its 16 3-point field goal tries. Roberts battled foul trouble, and senior captain Scott Everman left the game after playing just three minutes due to injury.
Senior forward Christian Oshita scored eight in the first half, becoming just the second UC San Diego player in the program's Division II history to score 1,500 career points.
Junior guard
Gabe Hadley and junior forward
Hugh Baxter both played key roles off the bench. Baxter scored a career high eight points in the first half as the Tritons took a 34-28 lead into halftime.
In the second half, UC San Diego pulled away as the shots began to fall. The Tritons shot 52% overall after the break and sank seven three-pointers. Five Tritons finished in double figures, led by Roberts' 14. Oshita scored 13 and grabbed seven rebounds. Hadley and junior forward
Marek Sullivan each poured in 12 and pulled down four boards. Senior center
Chris Hansen scored 10 and had 7 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench.
In addition to Roberts, Oshita and Sullivan were also named to the CCAA All-Tournament Team.
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UC San Diego will find out its NCAA tournament fate on Sunday night when the selection show takes place at 7:30 pm PDT on NCAA.com. The Tritons expect to be named host of the West Regional, which begins on Friday, March 13.
About UC San Diego Athletics
With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country. The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in summer 2020, will transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference. UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent. A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. In competition, more than 1,300 UC San Diego student-athletes have earned All-America honors.
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