NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Down by 10 points with 15:29 to play, UC San Diego outscored host CSUN by 20 for the remainder of the game as the Tritons earned a 79-69 victory over the Matadors Saturday evening inside Premier America Credit Union Arena. With the win, the Tritons are 20-10 overall and 14-4 in Big West action, sitting a half game back of UC Irvine in The Big West standings with two games to play (UCI, with three games remaining, plays later Saturday night).
Celebrating its seniors before the game, CSUN fell to 18-13, 9-10.
Bryce Pope scored 29 and
Tyler McGhie added 21 to lead UC San Diego, as the Tritons earned their first 20-win season at the Division I level. Pope matched his career high with five assists.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored 13 and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds, and
Francis Nwaokorie scored ten.
HOW IT HAPPENED
McGhie hit three consecutive three-pointers as the Tritons went up 18-15 with 11:33 on the clock. At that point, the Tritons had connected on four of their first six three-point tries.
It was a tightly contested first half until the Matadors used a 16-3 spurt to build a 10-point advantage, 31-21, with 6:12 left in the period.
After a UC San Diego timeout, the Tritons responded with a 7-0 run to draw back to within three with four minutes left. After a Pope bucket,
Hayden Gray stole the inbounds and kicked it out to Pope for a top-of-the-key three. After a CSUN score to go back up by three, another three-ball from Pope leveled the score at 33 apiece.
The Matadors clung to a 35-33 lead at halftime, thanks to outscoring the Tritons 24-12 in the paint. Pope led all scorers with 15 and McGhie added 11, but the Tritons shot just 36% overall and connected on just two of their last 11 shots from distance in the first half.
CSUN built another 10-point advantage, 46-36, with 15:29 to play, but the Tritons responded with a 13-2 run to regain the lead, 49-48. McGhie sank two more from distance, giving him five on the night.
UC San Diego led 51-50 when Pope reeled off seven straight points to give the Tritons their largest lead to that point, 58-50, forcing a CSUN timeout with 7:31 to play. With 4:22 to go, Nwaokorie threw down a monstrous dunk to extend UC San Diego's lead to ten, 64-54.
After committing eight first half turnovers, the Tritons had just two after halftime.
TRITON TIDBITS
- Playing in his 20th game, Tyler McGhie registered his fifth 20-plus point game of the season.
- Bryce Pope moved into fifth all-time on UC San Diego's career scoring list, now with 1,573 career points.
- The Tritons are 4-1 in March games as members of The Big West.
- The 20-win season is the sixth for head coach Eric Olen in his 11 years as Tritons' head coach.
- UC San Diego has now trailed at halftime in each of its last three games, after trailing at the break just once in its first 15 Big West contests.
- UC San Diego has run out the same starting lineup in all 30 games this season: Hayden Gray, Bryce Pope, Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, Francis Nwaokorie, and J'Raan Brooks. The Tritons are one of two Division I teams (along with Wisconsin) to use the same starting lineup in each of its games.
QUOTABLE
UP NEXT
UC San Diego returns to LionTree Arena to close out the regular season with a pair of home games next week. The Tritons will next host UC Davis on Thursday at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through
Triton Box Office. The game can be seen on ESPN+ or heard on KSDT Radio, with live stats 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 Conference 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.
