ANNAPOLIS, Md. – UC San Diego senior
J'Raan Brooks scored a career-high 12 points and grabbed a personal best nine rebounds, but Youngstown State ran off 13 straight points to start the second half and the Penguins downed UC San Diego by a 73-54 score at Navy's Alumni Hall Saturday night.
Youngstown State improved to 4-1 with the victory while the Tritons dropped to 1-4.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Youngstown State got off to a hot start, rolling out to a 9-2 advantage to start the game, forcing UC San Diego to call timeout with 16:52 remaining.
The Tritons began to slice into the Penguins' lead.
Jace Roquemore drove through traffic and got a layup to draw UC San Diego to within three.
Trailing 34-20 with 3:59 to play, the Tritons ripped off a 13-0 run over the next 3:13 to take a 37-30. Great ball movement led to a
J'Raan Brooks bucket in the paint to put UC San Diego in front.
UC San Diego led 37-32 at the break thanks to a strong inside presence. Brooks had six points and a career-high eight boards over 12 minutes. As a team, UC San Diego scored 24 points in the paint and grabbed 10 offensive rebounds.
The Tritons connected on 44% of their first half shots despite hitting just 3-of-15 from beyond the arc. The Penguins were 41% from the floor.
Youngstown State scored the first 13 points of the second half to go up 45-37 – the largest lead for either team of the night. The Penguins connected on 10 of their first 11 field goal tries of the half, building a 56-42 lead with 11:57 left.
The Penguins shot 70% after halftime while the Tritons were limited to just 24% shooting in the second half.
QUOTABLE
"In the first half, we were able to get in the paint and make some plays and we did a good job on the glass, but in the second half we couldn't keep them out of the paint, and they kept us out of the paint," said UC San Diego head coach
Eric Olen. "Nobody's going to feel sorry for you [playing back-to-back days]. You play the games on the schedule and deal with the situation you're in. We weren't able to sustain our level and ended up on the wrong end of it."
TRITON TIDBITS
- Sophomore Justin DeGraaf had a season-best nine points while matching his career high six rebounds.
- For the second time in the team's first five games, UC San Diego did not attempt a first half free throw. The Tritons' first attempts came when Roddie Anderson III shot a pair with 13:19 left in the game.
- 54 points marked a season low for the Tritons.
- As the designated home team, UC San Diego wore its white uniforms for Saturday's game.
UP NEXT
The Tritons travel to Washington D.C. on Sunday and will face George Washington on Tuesday night. Tip-off from the Charles E. Smith Center is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST) with the game televised on ESPN+. Live stats will be available on UCSDTritons.com.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
