DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – UC San Diego used a strong shooting effort and scored 19 points off 11 JMU turnovers on the way to a 73-67 Triton victory over the Dukes in the Boardwalk Battle semifinal Friday afternoon at Ocean Center. The Tritons (4-2) advance to Saturday's championship game, where they will meet Toledo.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored a game-high 21 points – 13 of which came from the free throw line – in the win.
Hayden Gray chipped in a season-best 16 on 6-of-9 shooting – including a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc – in the win. The Tritons shot 50% from the floor (24-of-48), matching their season-best shooting percentage.
JMU (3-3) was led by Bryce Lindsay. He scored 17 off the bench.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Nordin Kapic got the Triton scoring started with a quick bucket, but James Madison rattled off the next seven points to take an early 7-2 lead. That five-point advantage would be JMU's largest of the afternoon. It was Kapic again who stopped the Dukes' scoring run with a three-pointer.
A fast break dunk from Tait-Jones and three-pointers from
Aidan Burke and Gray keyed an 8-0 Tritons run to give UC San Diego a 26-18 lead with six minutes to go in the half.
The Tritons hit 46% of their first half shot attempts, led by 14 from Tait-Jones. Gray added six points and a couple of steals. On the other end, UC San Diego's defense limited the Dukes to just 30% shooting and only 4-of-16 from distance (JMU shot 42% from beyond the arc yesterday). Another difference through 20 minutes: the Tritons scored ten points off JMU miscues; the Dukes scored zero off Triton turnovers.
After halftime, UC San Diego built a 12-point advantage on a Tait-Jones free throw. JMU responded with an 18-2 run to draw within four, as the Tritons' lead was cut to 51-47 with 9:44 left. James Madison briefly tied the score at 54 on a three from Mark Freeman – the team's sixth of the half – but UC San Diego came down the floor and got a go-ahead bucket from
Nordin Kapic, who was fouled on the play.
Leading by three, the Tritons doubled the lead on a huge three-pointer from Gray, whose stutter step threw off his defender.
That extended the advantage to 63-57 with 4:30 left. Down the stretch, Kapic hit a big layup with 53.5 seconds to play as UC San Diego went back up by five, 69-64.
Chris Howell and Tait-Jones each added a pair of free throws in the final moments to secure the win.
QUOTABLE
"This was a really good performance against another good team," said UC San Diego head coach
Eric Olen. "I thought we played really well throughout. JMU made a run in the second half, but I thought we showed a lot of poise and composure to weather that storm. From there, we made enough plays down the stretch to win."
TRITON TIDBITS
- Hayden Gray leads all of NCAA Division I with 23 steals this season.
- UC San Diego matched its season high with 18 made free throws.
- The Tritons bested Thursday's margin of victory (72-67) by one point.
- Friday marked the first-ever men's basketball meeting between the Dukes and Tritons.
- For the second consecutive afternoon, UC San Diego wore its white uniforms as the designated home team.
UP NEXT
UC San Diego will face Toledo (5-1) in the championship game of the Boardwalk Battle at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach on Saturday. Winners of five straight, the Rockets outlasted Jacksonville State, 82-80, in the other semifinal. Saturday's championship game is scheduled to tip off at 2:30 p.m. PT.
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 84 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 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.
